A Baird’s beaked whale was found washed up on the southwest Washington coast Friday, adding to a growing number of whales that have washed ashore along the West Coast since the start of the year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the whale was discovered on the Long Beach Peninsula.
Michael Milstein, a spokesman for NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, said that Baird’s beaked whales are not commonly found stranded in Oregon or Wahington, “as they tend to frequent more distant, deeper waters.”
Baird’s beaked whales, sometimes called giant bottlenose whales, are found throughout the North Pacific Ocean and nearby seas, including along the West Coast from California to Alaska. According to NOAA Fisheries, the species prefers cold, deep ocean waters but may occasionally appear near shore along narrow continental shelves.
So far this year, at least 19 whales have been found on shore up and down the West Coast. On Tuesday, a 40-foot gray whale washed ashore near Seaside Beach – the third dead whale to wash up on the Oregon coast this year. The Lincoln Chronicle reported this month that the overall issue is the decreasing amount of food in the Arctic feeding grounds of Pacific gray whales.
Omgosh. What is happening. Why are they dying? This is so sad.
They are starving to death due to humans over fishing and climate change. It breaks my heart to see these beautiful creatures dying and washing up on shore.