The body of a female gray whale washed up on Ocean Shores Thursday. The death marks the 30th whale stranding this year, making 2026 the second most fatal year for gray whales ever recorded in Washington.
According to a Facebook post by the Cascadia Research Collective, a research and education non-profit, malnutrition and occasional internal trauma from being struck by boats are the leading causes of death for whales.
The collective said that it intends to take tissue samples from the dead whales over the next couple months in order to gleam more information about what lead to their demise.
However, the rate of whale deaths is starting to outpace how fast scientists can conduct research into each event.
Center for Biological Diversity reports that at least 51 whales have died along the West Coast this year. According to the collective the easter North Pacific gray whale population has experience high mortality since 2019, which has been linked to changes in the habitats of their prey, leading to less available food for the whales.
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