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4 gray whales found dead in San Francisco Bay Area in 9 days
Phys.org ^ | 4/10/2021 | Olga R. Rodriguez

Posted on 04/10/2021 7:59:23 PM PDT by LibWhacker

Four dead gray whales have washed ashore San Francisco Bay Area beaches in the last nine days and experts said Friday, April 9, 2021, one was struck by a ship. They were trying to determine how the other three died. "It's alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species," says Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Director of Pathology at The Marine Mammal Center.(The Marine Mammal Center via AP) Four dead gray whales have washed ashore San Francisco Bay Area beaches in the last nine days, with experts saying Friday one was struck by a ship. They were trying to determine how the other three died.

"It's alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species," says Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Director of Pathology at The Marine Mammal Center.

The carcass of a 41-foot (12.5 meter) adult female gray whale landed at San Francisco's Crissy Field on March 31. A second adult female was found last Saturday in Moss Beach in San Mateo County. A third was found Wednesday floating near the Berkeley Marina and the following day one washed up in Marin County's Muir Beach.

The whales migrate 10,000 miles (16,090 kilometers) to winter off Mexico's waters, where they mate and birth calves near the coast of Baja California. They head back north and stay off the coast of California in spring and summer to feed on anchovies, sardines and krill before continuing on their northerly migration to cool, food-rich Arctic waters.

In 2019, at least 13 dead whales washed ashore in the Bay Area and scientists said they feared it was because the animals were starving and couldn't complete their annual migration from Mexico to Alaska. Biologists have observed gray whales in poor body condition during their annual migration since 2019, when an "unusual mortality event" was declared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Four dead gray whales have washed ashore San Francisco Bay Area beaches in the last nine days and experts said Friday, April 9, 2021, one was struck by a ship. They were trying to determine how the other three died. "It's alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species," says Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Director of Pathology at The Marine Mammal Center. (The Marine Mammal Center via AP) Malnutrition, entanglement in fishing gear, and trauma from ship strikes have been the most common causes of death found by the center's research team in recent years.

A necropsy of the whale found at Muir Beach revealed significant bruising and hemorrhaging to muscle around the whale's jaw and neck vertebrae consistent with blunt force trauma due to ship strike. But experts noted the whale was in good body condition based on the blubber layer and internal fat levels, the center said.

Experts haven't determined how the other three whales died or if starvation was behind their deaths.

Nearly one in four gray whales migrating along the U.S. West Coast has died since the last recorded population assessment in 2015 and 2016, according to NOAA.

"This many dead whales in a week is shocking, especially because these animals are the tip of the iceberg," said Kristen Monsell, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Oceans program.

Four dead gray whales have washed ashore San Francisco Bay Area beaches in the last nine days and experts said Friday, April 9, 2021, one was struck by a ship. They were trying to determine how the other three died. "It's alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species," says Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Director of Pathology at The Marine Mammal Center. (The Marine Mammal Center via AP) Experts estimate the washed-up whales represent just 10 percent of the total number of the dead, with the rest sinking into the sea unnoticed by humans.

Monsell said California lawmakers need to require fishing gear that doesn't use rope, and federal regulators should set mandatory speed limits for ships.

"Ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements kill many whales that we never see," she said.

Her organization is suing the federal government to get speed limits in shipping lanes off California, Monsell added.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: bay; dead; sanfrancisco; whales
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Gee, all those brains and not one willing to consider the possibility that megatons of filthy runoff from San Francisco killed them. Wonder why? We see libs jumping to unsubstantiated conclusions MUCH faster than that all the time.
1 posted on 04/10/2021 7:59:23 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

The old gray whale
She ain’t what she used to be...


2 posted on 04/10/2021 8:02:40 PM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: LibWhacker

Jao Bi Din’s fault.

[Did anybody check on Heels Up’s location?]


3 posted on 04/10/2021 8:02:57 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: LibWhacker

how many people died in the rea in that time? does anyone care?


4 posted on 04/10/2021 8:03:45 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: LibWhacker

They probably died of Covid-19, right?


5 posted on 04/10/2021 8:05:03 PM PDT by captain_dave
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To: LibWhacker

I am sure global warming (or climate change) will be mentioned again and again as the likely cause.


6 posted on 04/10/2021 8:05:47 PM PDT by boycott
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To: LibWhacker

stacy abrams was swimming?


7 posted on 04/10/2021 8:06:02 PM PDT by max americana (FIRED LEFTARD employees at our office every election since 2008 and enjoyed seeing them cry.)
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To: LibWhacker

Fentanyl overdoses. Or Pelozi’s empty botox vials.


8 posted on 04/10/2021 8:06:22 PM PDT by TigersEye (Will the Younger Dryas Impact you? )
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To: LibWhacker
U.S.S. Whale Cutter?


9 posted on 04/10/2021 8:06:33 PM PDT by CivilWarBrewing (Get off my back for my usage of CAPS, especially you snowflake males! MAN UP!)
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To: LibWhacker

Damn that FauxiCommunistChina virus !


10 posted on 04/10/2021 8:06:34 PM PDT by A strike (McConnell, Pence to gitmo; Barr, Fauxi to Florence supermax; Roberts to Terre Haute)
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To: LibWhacker

I am not going to read about SF local news on a conservative forum, but is this about mammals or old, fat, nasty dykes?


11 posted on 04/10/2021 8:07:03 PM PDT by Salvavida
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To: max americana

Tank and Rosie, I’m betting


12 posted on 04/10/2021 8:07:15 PM PDT by bigbob
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To: LibWhacker

This is the Star Trek movie where Kirk and Spock FAILED to save the whales...


13 posted on 04/10/2021 8:07:54 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! ("You, the American people, are my only special interest." --President Donald J. Trump)
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To: LibWhacker

I hope they have enough dynamite to properly dispose of these whales.


14 posted on 04/10/2021 8:08:40 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("I see you did something -- why you so racist?")
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To: LibWhacker

“....They were trying to determine how the other three died...”
*****************************
Maybe they suffocated from all the millions of discarded “COVID MASKS” that washed into the bay and ocean. You can’t walk down the street or through a parking lot without almost tripping over them.


15 posted on 04/10/2021 8:09:37 PM PDT by House Atreides
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To: LibWhacker

This sort of thing didn’t happen when Trump was president!


16 posted on 04/10/2021 8:09:52 PM PDT by hiho hiho
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To: LibWhacker

AIDS?


17 posted on 04/10/2021 8:10:00 PM PDT by Impy ("Burn them all!!" - King Aerys II Targaryen, I share the sentiment )
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To: P.O.E.

That’s a song about Hillary, right?


18 posted on 04/10/2021 8:15:29 PM PDT by EvilCapitalist (I voted for prosperity, and I got poverty.)
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To: LibWhacker; Larry Lucido; Gamecock; SaveFerris; Rebelbase
Probably Kramer's fault


19 posted on 04/10/2021 8:26:10 PM PDT by PROCON (Our rights do not come from government, therefore they cannot take them away.)
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To: LibWhacker
41 footer on the beach you say?

The only solution is to blow it up with lots of explosives.

20 posted on 04/10/2021 8:28:16 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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