Oregon gray whale strandings raise alarm of die-off

• "If we're seeing this many whales that are undernourished and having trouble this early in the year, what is that going to mean for the rest of the migration?" he said. Gray whales travel roughly 12,000 miles from Mexico to Arctic feeding grounds yearly.

The latest: Last week, two whales — a 40-foot gray whale and a Baird's beaked whale — were discovered on Seaside Beach and southwest Washington's Long Beach.

• Another juvenile gray whale died earlier this month after being found swimming in Washington's Willapa River, 20 miles from sea.

Flashback: Between 2019 and 2023, gray whale numbers fell from roughly 27,000 to 13,000 in what biologists called an unusual mortality event, driven by ecosystem changes in Arctic feeding grounds that disrupted food supplies and led to widespread malnutrition and deaths.

• Warming waters and melting ice, driven by human-caused climate change, leads to less available algae and crustaceans, leaving more whales undernourished.

This spring's early strandings suggest gray whales are again under severe stress, having been spotted feeding in places outside the species' typical sources, putting them more at risk, Milstein said.

• For example, several gray whales foraging in the San Francisco Bay this month have died after being struck by vessels.