{"id":821585,"date":"2026-08-22T01:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/821585\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T01:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:26:10","slug":"researchers-found-almost-triple-the-normal-number-of-dead-marine-mammals-on-north-coast-beaches-last-month-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/821585\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Found Almost Triple the Normal Number of Dead Marine Mammals on North Coast Beaches Last Month | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A dead male humpback whale was found on Mad River Beach on July 3. | Photo provided by LoCO reader Tom Schallert<\/p>\n

Scientists catalogued the highest number of dead marine mammals in over a decade on the North Coast\u2019s beaches last month \u2014 almost triple the typical monthly average.<\/p>\n

Twenty-eight marine mammals were found dead last month. Researchers usually find 10 in July, Dawn Goley, the director of Cal Poly Humboldt\u2019s Marine Mammal Stranding Program, told the Outpost. Most of them were seals and sea lions, but at least two dead humpback whales <\/a>were included too. The program has tracked dead marine mammals over a 140-mile stretch of coastline from northern Mendocino County up into Del Norte since 2012, checking out the same spots at the same times to ensure consistency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too soon to tell what\u2019s causing the inflation, Goley said, and many of the animals are too decomposed to examine anyway. This year\u2019s El Ni\u00f1o hasn\u2019t gathered enough strength yet to heat coastal waters close to shore, but it\u2019s getting warmer further out to sea. The ocean also sometimes suffers through heat waves, which have become more common over the last five-ten years, Goley said. Boat strikes may have killed some of them. Some may have starved. Researchers don\u2019t have exact data on the amount of living creatures here either; an increased sea lion and seal population, as well as increased boat traffic, might be driving the rate up as well. \u201cBut,\u201d Goley said, \u201cGiven the magnitude of it, something else, something unique, is going on this year, and I\u2019m sure it has to do with environmental changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grey whales have died this year at a higher rate than normal as well, Goley said. Some have starved, or become so emaciated they were unable to recover from injuries. There was another spike in grey whale deaths five years ago, so the stranding program and NOAA are working together to determine why they\u2019re starving. It\u2019s a \u201ccomplicated\u201d issue, Goley said, but there\u2019s likely a human element.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also paying close attention to the Guadalupe fur seal, which migrates up here from Mexico to feed offshore. Their population is depleted further south, and strandings here could mean trouble down there. California and steller sea lions seem to be doing OK.<\/p>\n

Keeping track is difficult, Goley said. If you see a stranded marine mammal on the beach, Goley wants you to contact them, either by emailing marinemammals@humboldt.edu<\/a>, or by calling 707-826-3650.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A dead male humpback whale was found on Mad River Beach on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-821585","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\/821585","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=821585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}