It is a sight that stops you cold. Seeing a forty-foot creature that belongs in the deep blue suddenly resting on a pile of wet sand is jarring. You’ve probably seen the headlines lately. A gray whale washes ashore on a beach in Oregon, or maybe it’s a calf found in the San Francisco Bay. People usually crowd around with their phones out, feeling a mix of awe and genuine sadness. It feels like a freak accident. Like a one-off tragedy. But if you look at the data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this isn't just a random streak of bad luck. It is part of a much larger, more complex biological event that scientists have been tracking for years.
The ocean is big. Really big. When something that large dies, it usually sinks to the bottom and becomes a "whale fall," feeding an entire ecosystem for decades. So, when one ends up on a public beach, it’s basically a message from the deep that something went sideways.
The Brutal Reality of the Unusual Mortality Event
Since 2019, we’ve been living through what the feds call an Unusual Mortality Event, or UME. That is a fancy way of saying "too many whales are dying and we aren't 100% sure why." Between 2019 and 2023, hundreds of gray whales were found stranded along the Pacific coast, from Mexico all the way up to Alaska.
It was grim.
Researchers like Dr. John Calambokidis from Cascadia Research Collective have been on the front lines of this. They noticed something specific about the whales that were showing up. They weren't just dead; they were skinny. Emaciated. You could see their ribs and the "peanut head" shape that happens when a whale loses the fat stores behind its skull. Basically, they were starving.
Why would a 30-ton animal starve?
It likely comes down to the Arctic. Gray whales are the ultimate commuters. They spend their summers in the Bering and Chukchi seas, vacuuming up tiny shrimp-like creatures called amphipods from the mud. If the ice melts too fast or the water gets too warm, those amphipods don't thrive. If the buffet is empty in the Arctic, the whales don't have enough gas in the tank to make the 10,000-mile round trip to Mexico and back. They run out of fuel halfway home. That is often when a gray whale washes ashore.
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Why some strandings have nothing to do with hunger
Hunger isn't the only culprit, though. Honestly, sometimes it’s just bad luck or human interference.
Take ship strikes. The shipping lanes outside of major hubs like Los Angeles or Puget Sound are basically underwater highways. Gray whales like to hug the coast. That is their thing. Unfortunately, that puts them right in the path of massive container ships. A whale hit by a hull might not die instantly. It might limp along for miles before finally giving up. When necropsies (animal autopsies) are performed, scientists often find massive bruising or shattered bones that prove a vessel was involved.
Then you have the predators.
Orcas are the wolves of the sea. They specifically hunt gray whale calves. They don't want the whole whale; they usually just eat the tongue and the lower jaw because it’s high in fat. The rest of the carcass is left to drift. If the wind is blowing the right way, that carcass ends up on your local beach. It’s gruesome, but it’s nature. It’s also important to realize that a stranding isn't always a sign of a "broken" ocean—sometimes it’s just the circle of life being incredibly messy in public view.
The Logistics of a 40-Ton Problem
What happens after a gray whale washes ashore? It’s a logistical nightmare. You can't just leave a rotting whale on a popular tourist beach. It smells. It attracts sharks if the tide pulls it back out. And, in some cases, the gases trapped inside the carcass can make it... well, explode.
Local authorities usually have a few options:
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- Bury it: If the sand is deep enough and the tide is low, they bring in the heavy yellow iron. Backhoes dig a massive trench and bury the whale right there. It’s the cleanest way, but it takes forever for the bones to decompose.
- The "Let it Rot" Approach: If the beach is remote, like in a National Park or a wilderness area, they just leave it. It’s a bonanza for vultures, coyotes, and bears.
- Towing: Sometimes they tie a line to the tail and tow it back out to sea, hoping the currents take it away. This is risky because it often just floats back two miles down the coast.
- The Infamous Explosion: Nobody does this anymore. In 1970, Oregon officials used dynamite to blow up a whale. It was a disaster. Large chunks of blubber rained down on onlookers and crushed a car. Nowadays, we stick to more "boring" methods.
What you should actually do if you find one
If you’re walking your dog and stumble upon a stranded whale, your first instinct might be to help. Maybe you want to splash water on it if it’s still alive.
Don't. First off, a living whale is dangerous. One flick of that tail can kill a human instantly. Second, they carry diseases. Brushing up against a marine mammal can expose you to things like brucellosis or "seal finger," which is a nasty infection that doesn't respond well to normal antibiotics.
The best thing you can do is call the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network. They have teams trained to handle this. They need to collect data. Every time a gray whale washes ashore, it provides a tiny piece of a massive puzzle. Scientists will measure the blubber layer. They’ll take samples of the baleen (the feathery plates in their mouths) which act like a chemical diary of everywhere the whale has been and what it has eaten over the last several years.
The silver lining you aren't hearing about
Here is the part most news clips miss: the population is actually pretty resilient.
The gray whale population has crashed before. Back in the late 1990s, another UME killed off a huge chunk of the herd. People thought they were toast. But they bounced back. By 2016, there were almost 27,000 gray whales in the Eastern North Pacific.
Even though the numbers dropped again recently—down to around 14,500 in the last count—there are signs of a turnaround. In the winter of 2023 and early 2024, researchers in the Mexican lagoons reported seeing more "fat" whales and more moms with calves. That’s huge. It means the Arctic feeding grounds might be stabilizing, or the whales are learning to adapt to the new "normal" of the changing ocean.
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Actionable steps for the concerned citizen
If you care about these animals, don't just post a sad face emoji on a photo of a stranding. There are actual things that change the outcome for these whales.
Watch your speed on the water
If you are a boat owner, especially in coastal waters during migration season (December through May), slow down. Even small vessels can injure a calf. Use apps like "Whale Alert" to see where sightings are happening in real-time.
Support the stranding networks
Organizations like The Marine Mammal Center or Cascadia Research operate on shoestring budgets. They are the ones doing the dirty, smelly work of necropsies that tell us why the ocean is changing.
Report immediately
Speed is everything. If a whale is alive but grounded, every minute counts. The weight of their own body on land eventually crushes their internal organs. If you see a whale—dead or alive—on the beach, call 1-866-767-6114 (for the US West Coast).
The takeaway is pretty simple. A stranded whale is a tragedy for that individual animal, but for us, it is a window. It’s a chance to look at the health of the Pacific. When we see a gray whale washes ashore, we are seeing the end of a long journey and the beginning of a scientific investigation that might just help us save the rest of the pod. Keep your distance, call the experts, and respect the fact that even in death, these animals are teaching us about the world we share with them.