Whale that swam 20 miles up Washington’s Willapa River found dead

Raymond, Wash. (AP) — A juvenile gray whale that amazed Washington state residents after it swam 20 miles up a small river was found dead, and an official with a marine mammal research group suspects hunger may have driven the whale to new hunting grounds as the species’ population declines.

The whale was discovered April 4 near Raymond in the Willapa River, which feeds into the ocean at Willapa Bay. A number of gray whales are currently in the bay on their 5,000-mile spring migration from birthing grounds in Baja California, Mexico, north to feeding grounds in Alaska.

The larger issue that the population of gray whales in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean has faced since 2019 is reduced food availability in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska’s coast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries agency declared an unusual mortality event for gray whales in the eastern Pacific from late 2018 to late 2023. It involved 690 gray whale strandings during that time, from Alaska to Mexico.