Gray whales are washing up dead on the West Coast. The reason is alarming

Gray whale deaths are mounting along the West Coast, with 187 carcasses found by mid-August this year from Mexico to Alaska, according to the report. Several strandings have turned up unexpectedly: a corpse in San Francisco Bay in March, a whale beached in Oregon in April, and a juvenile found dead in a Washington river far from the ocean. Scientists say many of the whales were emaciated, with one researcher describing them as “a bag of bones,” and warn this points to a worsening problem after years of conservation gains. The eastern North Pacific population fell 35% between 2020 and 2025, dropping from about 27,000 in 2016 to roughly 13,000 by 2025. NOAA previously declared an unusual mortality event in 2019, leading to an international investigation.