{"id":665291,"date":"2026-05-26T03:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T03:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/665291\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T03:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T03:33:15","slug":"nearly-two-dozen-gray-whales-have-already-died-of-strandings-this-year-on-northwest-beaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/665291\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly two dozen gray whales have already died of strandings this year on Northwest beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nearly two dozen gray whales<\/a> have already died of strandings this year on Northwest beaches.<\/p>\n

A staggering 22 gray whales have been found dead this year on the coast of Washington<\/a> and along the state\u2019s Puget Sound, King 5 News<\/a> reported Monday.<\/p>\n

Gray whales are under \u201csensitive\u201d status in Washington, which means the native mammals are \u201cvulnerable or declining\u201d and likely to become endangered or threatened in the state, according to<\/a> the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. <\/p>\n

As recently as last Wednesday, a male gray whale was found near Bremerton, King 5 News reported, citing fish and wildlife officials. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve been seeing record numbers of gray whales washing up dead, what we call a stranding,\u201d Cascadia Research Collective founder and research biologist John Calambokitis previously told the outlet. <\/p>\n

\"NearlyNearly two dozen gray whales have already died of strandings this year on Northwest beaches (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Malnutrition was the most common finding in whales examined this year, the outlet reported, citing experts with Cascadia Research Collective and NOAA<\/a> Fisheries. <\/p>\n

Experts believe climate change<\/a> in the Arctic, where the whales migrate to feed, is reducing their prey. <\/p>\n

\u201cA combination of increasing ocean acidity, increasing ocean temperatures, and other changing oceanographic patterns could lead to declines in the small benthic invertebrates that gray whales feed on \u2026 as well as disrupt the timing and distribution of prey,\u201d the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife writes on its website.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe whales are suffering from malnutrition, which researchers believe has been a consequence of climate change (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, NOAA Fisheries West Coast posted<\/a> a community alert on Facebook<\/a> warning of one to two malnourished gray whales spotted in Central Puget Sound. <\/p>\n

The male gray whale found near Bremerton that day showed signs of malnutrition and blunt force trauma, King 5 News reported.<\/p>\n

Gray whales in the North Pacific are divided into two populations \u2014 the Eastern North Pacific and Western North Pacific stocks. <\/p>\n

There were about 26,960 whales in the Eastern North Pacific stock in 2016, fish and wildlife officials said. <\/p>\n

\"ExpertsExperts believe climate change in the Arctic, where the whales migrate to feed, is reducing their prey (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Western North Pacific stock, which is federally endangered, numbered about 271 to 311 whales in 2016.<\/p>\n

Fish and wildlife officials said that aside from climate change, gray whales also face threats of \u201centanglement in fishing gear and marine debris\u201d, ship strikes and \u201chuman-generated marine sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least four whales that washed up dead in Washington this year showed injuries believed to be caused by ship strikes, and one showed signs of a recent entanglement, according to King 5 News. <\/p>\n

In 2019, Washington documented 35 gray whale strandings, the outlet reported, noting that researchers said this year\u2019s total has already surpassed the number of strandings at the same point in that record-breaking year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-665291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}