Whale Carcass Washes Ashore On Peninsula, Another In East Bay

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA — Two gray whale carcasses were spotted along the shorelines of the Bay Area on Tuesday, according to the Marine Mammal Center, with one seen near the Brooks Island Regional Preserve just off Richmond's southern shore and another in Pacifica.

Laura Sherr, a spokesperson for the center, said the carcass in Pacifica has been anchored at Esplanade Beach. Scientists plan to perform a necropsy Wednesday if the conditions are good.

Sherr said it's not yet clear, but the East Bay carcass might be one of the other dead grays reported earlier this month, just showing up in a new location. The center's staff will attempt to perform a post-mortem on that carcass sometime this week, but the logistics had not yet been worked out Tuesday evening.

On April 2, a 40-foot adult male was spotted in the waters near the Carquinez Bridge. It eventually went aground on the Rodeo shoreline in unincorporated Contra Costa County. The center performed a necropsy on that carcass last week, finding that it had died of severe malnutrition.

It was at least the third dead gray this year. Two more were reported in March.

Sherr said that so far in 2019, the center has performed necropsies on four whale carcasses. Three of them died from malnutrition, and the other died from blunt-force trauma associated with a ship-strike.

For more information about The Marine Mammal Center and what they do, go to www.tmmc.org.

By Bay City News Service