Tragic Discovery: Gray Whale Found Dead After Unusual 20-Mile Journey Up Washington River

A young gray whale that captivated residents of Washington state by swimming 20 miles up a small river has been found dead. Experts from a marine mammal research group suggest that the whale might have ventured into unfamiliar waters in search of food, as the population of gray whales continues to suffer a decline.

The whale’s body was discovered on Saturday near Raymond, Washington, in the Willapa River, which connects to the ocean at Willapa Bay. Currently, a number of gray whales are present in the bay as they migrate on their 5,000-mile journey from breeding areas in Baja California, Mexico, to feeding regions in Alaska.

This troubling situation is part of a broader issue affecting gray whales in the eastern Pacific. Since 2019, these whales have faced reduced food supplies in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska’s coast, according to John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, who spoke with The Associated Press on Sunday.

“Gray whales are facing a major crisis, and the core of the problem seems to be their ability to feed on prey in the Arctic,” Calambokidis explained.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries has declared an unusual mortality event for eastern gray whales, referring to those in the eastern Pacific, from late 2018 through late 2023. This designation covers 690 gray whale strandings over that period, spanning from Alaska to Mexico.

NOAA Fisheries investigators concluded the preliminary cause was “localized ecosystem changes in the whales’ sub-Arctic and Arctic feeding areas that led to changes in food, malnutrition, decreased birth rates and increased mortality.”

Officials believed the population was rebounding, but the most recent count from 2025 instead showed a continuing decline. The federal agency estimated there were about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest count since the 1970s.

“A lot of these gray whales are looking very emaciated, very thin,” Calambokidis said.

Their migration north is typically the most challenging period for gray whales, the longest they’ve gone without eating, forcing the animals to use up their nutritional reserves.

“When that happens, you often see gray whales in a more desperate search for new areas to feed,” Calambokidis said. “That’s the most likely context for this whale.”

Researchers will attempt to examine the whale, possibly as soon as Monday.

It entered the north fork of the Willapa River on Wednesday, via a bay about 185 miles (298 kilometers) southwest of Seattle. Residents gathered on bridges along the river just to catch glimpses of the massive mammal and flooded social media with photos and video of it expelling air through its blowhole.

While the gray whale appeared thin, it was behaving normally and didn’t appear to have any injuries, the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective said in a Facebook post.

The organization was giving the whale time and space to leave the river on its own, but when researchers attempted to find it Friday, the animal had traveled further upriver into waters that were unnavigable by boat, Calambokidis said.