A young gray whale that surprised residents in Washington has been found dead after swimming 20 miles up a small river. Officials from the Marine Mammal Research Group think that a lack of food may have pushed the whale to seek out new feeding areas as the overall population of gray whales declines.
This whale was discovered on Saturday in the Willapa River, which flows into the ocean at Willapa Bay close to Raymond, Washington.
Currently, a large number of gray whales are migrating from their calving areas in Baja California, Mexico, to their feeding spots in northern Alaska, covering a distance of around 5,000 miles.
According to John Kalambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, a significant issue for gray whale populations in the eastern Pacific has been the reduction in food supply in the northern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea since 2019.
“Gray whales are in serious trouble, and their core feeding areas seem to be compromised,” he shared.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service reported an unusually high number of gray whale deaths between late 2018 and late 2023, with 690 whales stranded from Alaska to Mexico during that time.
Investigators from NOAA Fisheries proposed that changes in the local ecosystem of the whales’ subarctic and arctic feeding grounds have resulted in dietary shifts, malnutrition, lower birth rates, and more deaths.
Initially, it was thought the population was recovering, but recent data from 2025 indicates a decline, with federal estimates placing the gray whale population at about 13,000, marking the lowest count since the 1970s.
“Many of these gray whales appear quite emaciated and thin,” Kalambokidis noted.
The northward migration is often the toughest stretch for gray whales, as they endure the longest time without feeding, relying heavily on their stored nutrients.
“In such situations, we commonly observe gray whales actively looking for new feeding grounds,” he explained. “That’s likely what happened with this whale.”
Researchers plan to examine the whale as early as Monday.
Earlier in the week, the whale had been seen entering the North Fork of the Willapa River through a bay about 295 miles southwest of Seattle. Locals eagerly gathered on riverside bridges to see the massive creature, and social media was filled with pictures and videos of it spouting air from its blowhole.
The Cascadia Research Collective mentioned on Facebook that the whale seemed thin but was acting normally and didn’t appear to have any injuries.
Kalambokidis stated that the group had allowed the whale to have some space to exit the river on its own, but when they attempted to locate it on Friday, it had moved upstream into areas that were inaccessible by boat.
