Five gray whales have been found on Northwest beaches this month, prompting plenty of media attention and raising many questions about the mighty animals. Here are some answers.
Why are so many gray whales turning up dead?
Marine scientists say five strandings is not unusual during the whales’ northern migration. In 2005, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there were 16 gray whale strandings on Northwest beaches, 12 in Puget Sound. That was the most in the past seven years. The least during that time was four whales in 2008. Five to seven is about average.
Why do they beach themselves?
Actually, they usually don’t. They die in deep water and are washed ashore at high tide. The receding tide leaves them stranded on the beach.
“A lot of it has to do with where they die and what the tides are doing at the time,” said NOAA spokesman Brian Gorman.
Whales that die in Puget Sound usually end up on a beach eventually, Gorman said.
“If they die off the coast, it’s just a matter of chance whether they come to shore or are eaten by other creatures.”
Did these whales die of starvation?
That’s not clear and might never be known. Scientists did necropsies on the dead whales and sent tissue samples off for laboratory analysis. The results aren’t back yet, but even when they do arrive, they might not definitively establish cause of death.
While the whales appeared emaciated and malnourished, it stands to reason they would be. The whales travel from Alaska to their breeding and calving grounds in Baja, Mexico, and back each year – a 2,000-mile round trip – eating very little along the way.
“They have essentially been fasting since they left Alaska last winter,” Gorman said.
What happens to their carcasses?
Gray whales on private beaches usually are towed to state beaches in sparsely populated areas, where scientists perform the necropsies. Then they often are eaten by scavengers and decompose naturally.
That’s a relatively recent change. In the past they were attached to concrete “Jersey barriers” and sunk in deep water. Scientists regard the current disposal method as more in keeping with natural processes.
Leaving them where they wash ashore is rarely an option, said Rus Higley, manager of Highline Community College’s Marine Science and Technology Center in Redondo.
“It’s a function of smell and a function of tourists,” Higley said. “The people in West Seattle who thought on the first day that it was pretty cool having a whale on their beach would not be saying that in a week or so.”
So where is the whale they found in West Seattle now?
In “an undisclosed location” in the South Sound.
What happens to the bones?
They’re offered to schools for research and education. The skeleton of the gray whale found in West Seattle on Wednesday has been promised to Highline Community College in Des Moines.
The school’s Marine Science and Technology Center plans to clean the bones and reassemble the entire skeleton as a hanging display.
Is it true the dead whales are so contaminated with toxic chemicals they need to be disposed of in toxic waste dumps?
Orca carcasses often are so highly contaminated that they must be handled as toxic waste. But not gray whales. That’s because orcas are at the top of the food chain and end up with the waste accumulated by other creatures all the way down the chain.
Gray whales are bottom feeders. They roil up the bottom and eat crustaceans – as much as a ton and a half a day – in relatively clean Alaskan waters.
Rob Carson, staff writer
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