FORT BRAGG, CA., 4/30/26 — A gray whale washed ashore Wednesday at Virgin Creek Beach in Fort Bragg, drawing scientists and researchers from local and out-of-town organizations.
By Thursday, visitors gathered at the site after news spread on social media. Samples of the whale had already been taken by researchers from Fort Bragg’s Noyo Center for Marine Science. A volunteer identified it as a subadult female, meaning it had not yet reached breeding age.
The volunteer said gray whales have been stranding in higher numbers along the West Coast in recent months, and researchers are working to determine the cause.
Around 3 p.m. Thursday, scientists from the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito arrived to conduct a necropsy, or animal autopsy, to determine the cause of death.
An informational display has been set up at the site.
We have one on the south beach in Point Reyes, ours has lots of great white bites taken out of it. It’s a ways south of the.parking lot so most tourists don’t go that far down.
Were the bites pre or post mortem? Is east to tell the difference by the amount of bruising present adjacent to the bite marks. No significant bruising means post mortem.
Just from looking at the few photos , it looks as if the Fort Bragg whale had its tongue torn out, which is what both sharks and orcas do first .
Sadly , ship strikes seem to be the most likely culprit. But environmental changes may contribute to the problem by causing new parasites to flourish.
Sadly, most people don’t want to understand how intelligent cetaceans are. We’re talking advanced intelligence that though different then humanity, may be superior in many ways. The difference in environment and the lack of opposable digits is the main factor why we consider ourselves ” superior” .
The fact that ceteceans can process echolocation while at the same time communicating with others of their own species is in incredible . Our best computers can’t come close to how an orca can ” see” with sonar. We’ve just now come up with ” live sonar pictures ” that have decent enough clarity to be useful in navigation and fishing. –
I’ve been lucky enough to look in to the eye of an adult blue whale from no more then 20 feet as it swam down the side of the 50 foot Delta I was running sport fishing at the time. They beauty rolled as it swam slowly past my pet side to the delight of all the fishing customers. That bowling ball sized eyeball was so full of intelligence that it shook me. When it caught my eye , that whale held my gaze so steadily and for a good 10 seconds before it looked towards others and the boat. I swear I could see questions in its eyes. I’m sure that if they could ask them, one of the first would ” why did you stop killing us ” and ” why do others continue to do so?”
It’s so sad to see so many dying.
Do you have Native American representatives present? Let then have it.
i don’t think the indians will want to eat that
That a gray whale washed ashore at all can’t be that shocking, right? We’d been seeing a die-off of whales along the Ca coast for some time. If this individual is known to not have bite marks on it from, say a shark or orca then it’s likely that this whale just …..died.
Is its belly full of plastics? Was it a boat strike? Was it a victim of entanglement? I’d say cut it up and put it back in the ocean so it can be consumed by wildlife like it’s supposed to be.
100% correct. Scum use the ocean for a garbage can. Hopefully humans go extinct soon so the earth goes back to rightful owners.
Propeller make on it, or shark bites
This is so unfortunate. It really makes my heart ache. I hope that they find out what happened to it. Plastic or some kind of accident
Terrible 😞
The cycle of life is a beautiful thing, all life was created to have a time on earth to enrich the nature around it. This death will teach us through science, just as its life fulfilled it’s purpose for whoever or whatever came in contact with it.
Don’t mourn its death, instead celebrate the time it had to bless the world around it.
I think it’s sad, especially if it died because of plastics or any other man made incident, for our oceans to be as big as they are, big mammals like whales n orcas are all starting to disappear, die off or what ever you want to call it, but there’s not as many as people would, and it’s all our faults, God blessed us to see these magnificent creatures and all man has done is kill them, that’s heartbreaking to say the least.
It’s not your fault. But thank you for having such a kind heart. Perhaps mankind had nothing to do with it. I will die soon. And I’m not going to blame it on you or anyone else.
I think everybody that immediately jumps in and blames plastic, boat props, and mankind in general should just step back and wait for what the experts find as cause of death before jumping on their soapboxes to speculate.
The gash on the whale’s side looks like it was made by a boat, or maybe a shark. It is not the same as the cuts the scientists are making to find out the cause of death. Therefore I do consider it very sad that this juvenile female had to die. Whales are joyful creatures that bring happiness (and profit) to the community and visitors. We love them and are distressed when they suffer and die.
It’s honestly sad . Think about the places that recently started hunting whales again 🥺😢