Marine mammal expert says whale washed ashore Sunday north of Yachats had been dead for days

A gray whale that washed ashore three miles north of Yachats early Sunday was an adult female that had been dead for a few days, the head of the Newport-based Marine Mammal Stranding Network told the Lincoln Chronicle after viewing the whale.

It is the second gray whale to wash ashore dead on beaches in Lincoln and Lane counties in the past three weeks as thousands of whales — many of them malnourished — migrate north along the West Coast to feeding grounds in the Arctic. There have been at least seven whales washed ashore or stranded on the Washington coast already this spring.

The whale was 38 feet long, said Jim Rice, coordinator of the stranding network, who took measurements, samples and photographs of the whale Sunday afternoon once the tide went out. Rice said the female was at least five years old, did not appear emaciated and shows no signs of a recent injury.

The whale had initially rolled around in the surf Sunday morning and then was beached on the sand as the tide receded Sunday afternoon.

Rice and network volunteers returned Monday afternoon during low tide to gather more samples needed for a necropsy by veterinarians before Oregon State Parks and Recreation staff arranged for it to be buried on the beach, as is the practice.

— Lincoln Chronicle