In April this gray whale washed up on a private beach in a West Seattle neighborhood called The Arroyos. Apparently it is not uncommon for 10-15 whales like this to die in Puget Sound each year. They spend their summers in Alaska's Bering Sea where they feed. And in the winter they swim over a thousand miles south where they breed and give birth near Baja. Though they eat opportunistically throughout their travels, most of their eating is done in the summer. Those that tend to turn up dead near Seattle, on the way back up to Alaska, tend to be undernourished for whatever reason. This whale was found to have up to 50 gallons of undigested plastic in its stomach, which at the time of the necropsy was not necessarily the stated cause of death. However it did indicate that this whale was feeding close to populated areas shortly before it died.
My HD footage was solicited by a producer who is working on a show for National Geographic Explorer on gray whales. So it may turn up on TV at some point in the future. The carcass of this whale was towed off the beach and was relocated to a more secluded location so a full necropsy could be done. Afterwards it was left to decompose naturally. Its skeleton would be retrieved later and processed for educational purposes.
Gray Whale at the Arroyos from christopher boffoli on Vimeo.
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