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A juvenile gray whale that amazed Washington state residents after it swam 20 miles up a small river was found dead, and an official with a marine mammal research group suspects hunger may have driven the whale to new hunting grounds as the species\u2019 population declines.<\/p>\n
The whale was discovered Saturday near Raymond, Washington, in the Willapa River, which feeds into the ocean at Willapa Bay. <\/p>\n
A number of gray whales are currently in the bay on their 5,000-mile spring migration from birthing grounds in Baja California, Mexico, north to feeding grounds in Alaska.<\/p>\nThis photo provided by Cascadia Research Collective shows a gray whale swimming in the Willapa River near Willapa Bay, Wash., Wednesday, April 1, 2026. AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe larger issue that the population of gray whales in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean has faced since 2019 is reduced food availability in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska\u2019s coast, John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, told The Associated Press on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGray whales are facing a major crisis and the heart of it does seem to be feeding on their prey in the Arctic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n<\/aside>\nThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries agency declared an unusual mortality event for\u00a0eastern gray whales\u00a0\u2014 meaning those in the eastern Pacific \u2014 from late 2018 to late 2023. It involved 690\u00a0gray whale strandings\u00a0during that time, stretching from\u00a0Alaska\u00a0to Mexico.<\/p>\n
NOAA Fisheries investigators concluded the preliminary cause was \u201clocalized ecosystem changes in the whales\u2019 sub-Arctic and Arctic feeding areas that led to changes in food, malnutrition, decreased birth rates and increased mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials believed the\u00a0population was rebounding, but the most recent count from 2025 instead showed a continuing decline. The federal agency estimated there were about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest count since the 1970s.<\/p>\nThe whale was discovered Saturday near Raymond, Washington, in the Willapa River, which feeds into the ocean at Willapa Bay. AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cA lot of these gray whales are looking very emaciated, very thin,\u201d Calambokidis said.<\/p>\n
Their migration north is typically the most challenging period for gray whales, the longest they\u2019ve gone without eating, forcing the animals to use up their nutritional reserves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen that happens, you often see gray whales in a more desperate search for new areas to feed,\u201d Calambokidis said. \u201cThat\u2019s the most likely context for this whale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Researchers will attempt to examine the whale, possibly as soon as Monday.<\/p>\n
It entered the north fork of the Willapa River on Wednesday, via a bay about 185 miles southwest of Seattle. Residents gathered on bridges along the river just to catch glimpses of the massive mammal and flooded social media with photos and video of it expelling air through its blowhole.<\/p>\n
While the gray whale appeared thin, it was behaving normally and didn\u2019t appear to have any injuries, the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
The organization was giving the whale time and space to leave the river on its own, but when researchers attempted to find it Friday, the animal had traveled further upriver into waters that were unnavigable by boat, Calambokidis said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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