Small Dead Humpback Whale Washes Ashore At Cannon Beach South End

PORTLAND, OR —A small humpback whale washed ashore at Silver Point at the south end of Cannon Beach. Officials from Seaside Aquarium say that the whale has been dead for some time.

Because the whale was badly deteriorated and it's located on a tough to get to area, they will not be able to perform a necropsy to figure out how and why the whale had died.

However, they will try to get what they call "standard measurements" of the whale.

Humpbacks had once been hunted to the brink of extinction.

While they had once been plentiful in the northern Pacific Ocean, by 1966, their numbers had dwindled to about 1,400. Thanks to legislation and agreements to ban whaling, their numbers have rebounded.

It's now believed there are close to 20,000 individuals, according to the organization, SPLASH or Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks.