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Residents of Washington state were captivated by the sight of a young gray whale venturing 20 miles up a small river, a rare spectacle that turned tragic when the whale was later found dead. Experts from a marine mammal research group suggest that the whale’s unusual journey might have been driven by hunger, as the species struggles with dwindling populations.
The whale’s body was discovered on Saturday in the Willapa River near Raymond, Washington. The river flows into the Pacific Ocean at Willapa Bay, where several gray whales are currently paused during their extensive 5,000-mile spring migration. This journey takes them from their birthing sites in Baja California, Mexico, to the rich feeding grounds off Alaska’s coast.
The plight of gray whales is increasingly concerning, with significant challenges impacting their survival. A spokesperson for the research group noted, “Gray whales are facing a major crisis, particularly concerning their ability to feed in the Arctic regions.”
In response to these alarming trends, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries (NOAA) declared an unusual mortality event for eastern gray whales, spanning from late 2018 to late 2023. This declaration came after 690 gray whales were found stranded along the coast from Alaska to Mexico during this period.
NOAA’s investigations pointed to a preliminary cause linked to “localized ecosystem changes in the whales’ sub-Arctic and Arctic feeding areas.” These changes have disrupted food availability, leading to malnutrition, fewer births, and increased mortality among the whales, contributing to the crisis facing this iconic species.
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.