Four dead whales wash ashore on San Francisco beaches within nine days
- ‘It’s alarming to respond to four dead grey whales in just over a week,’ said a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Centre in California
- Other common causes of grey whale deaths include starvation and complications from becoming entangled in deep-sea fishing lines, nets and other equipment, the centre said
Four dead grey whales washed ashore on San Francisco Bay area beaches in nine days, with experts announcing that two of the giant aquatic mammals died from ship strikes. An investigation was ongoing on Saturday into what happened to the other two.
Biologists with the non-profit organisation Marine Mammal Centre in California said in a press release on Saturday that two dead whales washed ashore in the Bay area on Thursday, joining two more that were discovered dead in area beaches since March 31.
Of the four animals, two died from blunt-force trauma from ship strikes, the centre said.
“It’s alarming to respond to four dead grey whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species,” Padraig Duignan, director of pathology at the centre said.
Other common causes of grey whale deaths include starvation and complications from becoming entangled in deep-sea fishing lines, nets and other equipment, the centre said.
The centre’s experts were joined by biologists from the California Academy of Sciences to perform the necropsies.