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Posted on 04/19/2026 10:42:48 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
California's blustery San Francisco Bay is home to the Golden Gate Bridge, commercial ports, public marinas and ferry boats. But more recently, a new sight is attracting locals' attention: Eastern North Pacific gray whales.
The whales have brought wonder, as residents and researchers now get to closely observe how they feed, breed and socially engage. They've also brought growing unease: why are so many of them undernourished and dying?
In 2025, a record number of 21 dead gray whales were found in the broader San Francisco Bay. So far this year, seven have died due to a combination of dwindling prey availability, climate change and human causes, researchers say.
The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn't known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
The impressive gray whales have the longest annual migration of any mammal, travelling an approximate 15,000-20,000km roundtrip to breed.
"It's a new habitat that they've chosen to utilise," the graduate student at Sonoma State University and the lead author of the paper tells the BBC, noting years of steep declines in their prey in the Arctic.
Many of those that turned up in the bay are adult and juvenile males that are heading to the Arctic. Notably, the whales observed are skinnier than they normally would be at this time of year, Slaathaug and several other researchers tell the BBC.
"They don't have the energy reserves necessary to complete the entire migration back to the Arctic, so they may be driven into the bay by hunger," she said.
Dead or dying gray whales have also cropped up in Washington...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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Runoff from Gavin’s hair gel?
Consider the diseases present in the water runoff.
Just the STDs and drugs......and raw sewage.
“Runoff from Gavin’s hair gel?”
ROFL!
The Leftist hyper negativity of all things great and small, including hatred of themselves, cannot have any positive effect on anything.
Off the coast of Kalifornia is one thing. After entering San Francisco Bay or the Delta, they are surrounded by negativity.
Not healthy for any of G-d’s creatures.
Dirtier and dirtier every year. We lived in SF a long time ago, loved those whales. It was always a treat to see them, usually near the beach but in the bay too.
May they live long and thrive.
AIDS was called "The Slims", just sayin'...
I’m glad I wasn’t drinking something when I read that! :-)
The BBC no longer allows people to see their materials for free. They block them with a demand to “subscribe”.
PHOOEY to them!!!!
In 2025, a record number of 21 dead gray whales were found in the broader San Francisco Bay
My spin.......................
Biologists have no operational quantitative understanding of the marine food pyramid.
Regulations by which they are paid preclude them from finding out.
Too many Frisco Whitefish?
Probably human feces being washed into the bay alone with all the drugs.
Did any of these gray whales wear flowers in their hair?
How about all those needles and waste run into the bay!
All I had to do to read the article was click on the little "X" in the upper right corner.
Thanks.
“Why are gray whales dying in San Francisco’s waters? US scientists search for clues.”
Simple, they have died due to a combination of dwindling prey availability, and human causes. Gray whales began entering San Francisco Bay in significant numbers in 2018, transforming the estuary into a frequent, yet hazardous, foraging stop during their annual migration. They have eaten themselves dry of prey, and been an open target for ships in large numbers since.
wy69
Global warming, I’m sure.
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