Juvenile Gray Whale Found Dead After Captivating Washington Residents
A juvenile gray whale that had captivated residents of Washington state after venturing an extraordinary 20 miles up a small river has been discovered dead. Marine mammal experts now suspect that hunger may have driven the whale to seek new hunting grounds, highlighting a broader and concerning decline in the species' population.
Discovery in the Willapa River
The whale was found on Saturday near Raymond, Washington, in the Willapa River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean at Willapa Bay. This location is part of the whales' extensive 5,000-mile spring migration route, where they travel from birthing grounds in Baja California, Mexico, north to feeding areas in Alaska. A number of gray whales are currently in the bay as part of this annual journey.
A Broader Population Crisis
John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, emphasized the severe crisis facing the eastern Pacific gray whale population. Since 2019, these whales have experienced significantly reduced food availability in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska's coast. "Gray whales are facing a major crisis and the heart of it does seem to be feeding on their prey in the Arctic," he told The Associated Press.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries agency declared an unusual mortality event for eastern gray whales, spanning from late 2018 to late 2023. During this period, a staggering 690 gray whale strandings were recorded across a vast stretch from Alaska to Mexico.
Investigations and Findings
NOAA Fisheries investigators concluded that the preliminary cause was "localized ecosystem changes in the whales' sub-Arctic and Arctic feeding areas that led to changes in food, malnutrition, decreased birth rates and increased mortality." Officials had initially believed the population was rebounding, but the most recent count from 2025 instead showed a continuing decline. The federal agency now estimates about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest count since the 1970s.
"A lot of these gray whales are looking very emaciated, very thin," Calambokidis noted. Their migration north is typically the most challenging period, as it is the longest they go without eating, forcing the animals to deplete their nutritional reserves.
The Whale's Final Journey
"When that happens, you often see gray whales in a more desperate search for new areas to feed," Calambokidis explained. "That's the most likely context for this whale." Researchers plan to examine the whale, possibly as soon as Monday, to gather more insights.
The whale 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 to catch glimpses of the massive mammal and flooded social media with photos and videos of it expelling air through its blowhole.
While the gray whale appeared thin, it was behaving normally and didn't show any visible injuries, according to the non-profit Cascadia Research Collective in a Facebook post. The organization was giving the whale time and space to leave the river on its own, but when researchers attempted to find it on Friday, the animal had travelled further upriver into waters that were unnavigable by boat, Calambokidis said.
