Gray whale carcass to be towed off Bainbridge beach for study
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – A gray whale carcass that washed ashore on Bainbridge Island’s Manitou Beach will be towed away for inspection. The rare sight and its location on an easily accessible beach made it a draw for curious, photo-snapping visitors Wednesday.
This was the fifth gray whale stranding in Washington this year, said Michael Milstein, a spokesman for the west coast region for NOAA Fisheries. The whale was an adult and appeared “fairly decomposed, so apparently it was floating for a while,” he said. At this point it’s unclear how the whale died, he said.
The carcass will be towed off the Bainbridge beach to a location in southern Puget Sound for an exam and decomposition. An assessment will determine the whale’s condition and what kind of nutrition it was getting, Milstein said.
A 2015-16 survey estimated the Eastern North Pacific gray whale population at about 27,000. The population is no longer considered an endangered species. And although overall the population is quite strong, Milstein said, the death follows what was classified as an “unusual mortality event” in the population last year, with 123 strandings along the west coast of the United States.
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