Gray Whale Found Dead Under Pier

Gray Whale Found Dead Under Pier

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Story Published: Jul 26, 2005 at 3:12 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 2:01 AM PDT

By Keith Eldridge

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PIERCE COUNTY - Researchers were on a beach in Pierce County Tuesday evening, trying to figure out what killed a young gray whale. It was found caught under a pier -- the second time that's happened in the last few months.

The whale is on private property owned by the government and the public can't get in to see it, but we were given special access.

The marine researchers tell us it appears to be a young gray whale -- a male juvenile about 24-feet long. It's on the beach at Chambers Creek now after being towed here by members of Cascadia Research Cooperative.

The whale was spotted over the weekend by a crab fisherman, who says the mammal was trapped in the pilings of an abandoned pier.

"We found the whale lodged underneath the pier upside down and kind of wedged back in," said Greg Schorr of Cascadia Research. "There are real strong currents that run in this area."

The question is: Was it alive or dead when it got stuck under the pier? 2-1/2 months ago, another gray whale got trapped under a pier at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard. It was alive for a time, but later died.

Researchers suspect the same thing may have happened here. But they won't know for sure until they perform a necropsy and get the results in a few weeks.

They say the gray whale population has been quite healthy for the past several decades. The average death rate is 5-6 whales a year in Puget Sound and along the Washington Coast. But Tuesday's death is number 10, yet that's well below the spike of 20 deaths in both 1999 and 2000.

"We're well under that level, but because of that major mortality and how many whales died in that we've been keeping an eye on this population and are certainly concerned about the level of mortality," said John Calambokidis of Cascadia.

It's not only a concern for researchers, but lots of folks who consider the whale an icon of the Northwest.

Anne-Marie Marshall-Dody of Pierce County Public Works & Utilities says, "It's very sad. It obviously looks like a very young whale. We're always sad to see these types of things occur."

Once the cause of death is figured out, the researchers say they'll let the mammal stay in the water and return back to nature.

The researchers say the whale was not weakened by starvation. That's been a problem for the whale population recently. There's a possibility that it was hit by a vessel, attacked by a killer whale, or died from a disease.

For More Information:

www.cascadiaresearch.org.

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