Oh no another dead whale, Half Moon Bay

To bury, to wash away, or to rot? Will their City Officials keep this outcome a secret for weeks until the whole thing stinks?

ABC 7 Science News/KGO TV, 5/19/15. "Dead whale washes ashore at beach in Half Moon Bay," includes an embedded video 2:25 minutes

Gray whale washed up on Kelly Beach, HMB

"HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (KGO) --A decomposing whale washed ashore on a Half Moon Bay beach Tuesday, the third whale stranded third whale stranded on a San Mateo County beach since last month, a Marine Mammal Center spokeswoman said.

The whale was found in the area of Kelly Beach. Researchers from the California Academy of Sciences responded to investigate how the whale died, and will likely get assistance from the Marin Headlands-based Marine Mammal Center, center spokeswoman Laura Sherr said.

The whale appears to be an adult gray whale, about 40 feet long, although the carcass was badly decomposed by the time it washed ashore and was rolling in the surf earlier today, Sherr said. Because of the advanced decomposition, researchers will be unable to conduct a full necropsy but will examine the bones for signs of trauma, Sherr said."

Related article - NBC Bay Area news/Staff, 5/19/15, includes video 1:50 minutes.  "Dead gray whale washes ashore in Half Moon Bay." "A 40-foot gray whale has washed ashore in Half Moon Bay, one of three dead whales to have been spotted on a Bay Area beach in a little over a month. According to California Academy of Sciences spokeswoman Haley Bowling, the whale washed ashore on Monday (5/18/15) near Kelly Beach between St. Francis and Poplar beaches. Scientists suspect it was the same whale that was reported offshore from Pillar Point. A spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito said the adult gray whale is a female. Laura Sherr said scientists would likely examine the whale's bones on Wednesday for signs of trauma."

Related article - Los Angeles Times/Veronica Rocha, 5/19/15. .... "The latest whale is one of at least four dead ones that have washed up along beaches in Northern California in recent weeks, said Laura Sherr, spokeswoman of the Marine Mammal Center. The center responds to an average of five whales strandings each year.  The recent whale strandings, Sherr said, are not abnormal.“Because it is migration season there are more whales in the area, and we do usually see a peak in the late spring/early summer months -- April through June -- aligning with the migration,” she said.  

Gray Whale

Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, recently said more efforts are needed to keep whales safe from ocean hazards.“We need to do more to protect whales along the California coast before more of them show up dead on the beach,” she said. “The latest whale to wash up in Pacifica showed signs of being struck by a ship and the last dead killer whale was tangled in fishing gear, two problems that should be addressed with better regulations.”

Reference, Gray Whale. The Marine Mammal Center. Description. "Gray whales are medium sized whales, reaching up to 45 feet (14 m) in length, with the females usually being larger than the males. They are gray with white patches, which mostly consist of areas where barnacles and lice have attached themselves to the whales. .... Range/Habitat. Gray whales are found only in the Pacific Ocean, with a population of approximately 26,000. The Eastern North Pacific stock is the largest group. They summer north of Alaska in the Bering and Chukchi Seas and winter in the waters of Baja California, Mexico. ..."

Note Gray Whale photographs.  Washed-up whale on Kelly Beach from the ABC 7/KGO TV article. Whale graphic from the Marine Mammal Center reference.

Posted by Kathy Meeh