KQED: More Whales Are Washing Up Dead on Bay Area Beaches. Why?
- Species conservation
- Pathology
- Entanglement
Bay Curious: More Whales Are Washing Up Dead on Bay Area Beaches. Why?
Published by KQED: November 18. 2021
Spring and fall can be magical times along California’s coast. Gazing out to sea, you might glimpse a spout of seawater or a glistening fin slice through the waves — whales! It’s thrilling to spot these massive mammals as they migrate from Alaska to Mexico in the fall and back north in the spring. But gray whales, in particular, have been washing up dead on Bay Area beaches at alarming rates over the past several years.
Five-year-old Caleb Whan is very interested in whales. He asked Bay Curious a bevy of questions about what they eat and where they live, which is how he ended up trudging across a windy Sausalito beach with a veterinary pathologist, his dad and me. We soon reach the large, smelly marine mammal carcass.
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Pádraig Duignan
Gray Whale