A juvenile gray whale that swam up the Willapa River in Washington state was found dead. John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, suspects hunger may have driven the gray whale to new hunting grounds due to population decline. Gray whales in the eastern Pacific have been facing reduced food availability in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas since 2019. NOAA Fisheries declared an unusual mortality event for eastern gray whales from late 2018 to late 2023, involving 690 strandings. The agency concluded the preliminary cause was localized ecosystem changes in feeding areas leading to malnutrition, decreased birth rates, and increased mortality. The 2025 gray whale count showed about 13,000 whales, the lowest since the 1970s, indicating a continuing decline. The gray whale appeared thin but behaved normally and did not appear injured. Researchers attempted to find the gray whale on Friday but it had traveled further upriver into unnavigable waters.
In Europe, a sperm whale has stranded at Østhasselstranda, estimated to be 15 meters long and weighing 40-50 tons. The municipality had to close a nearby road due to heavy traffic from people wanting to see the sperm whale. At least ten sperm whales have stranded in Denmark, the UK, and Norway in the last month. Audun Rikardsen, a whale researcher and professor, says sperm whales can strand if they panic from loud sounds like military operations or seismic activity, causing decompression sickness. However, he also noted the sperm whale on Lista may have died naturally from old age, unrelated to other strandings. The municipality is considering options such as towing it out to sea or burying it, but faces challenges due to shallow waters and area conservation value.
It can be military operations or seismic activity related to petroleum operations. If they then panic and swim too quickly to the surface, they can get bubbles in their blood vessels. Then they will get decompression sickness and can die.
A killer whale was found dead off Haugesund with its tail entangled in fishing gear, making drowning the most likely cause of death. This whale is the younger brother of Elida, who died in Sognefjorden in 2021 with high levels of environmental toxins. Researchers will investigate if the killer whale died from the same cause as its sister, including environmental toxins. Killer whales are considered the world's most polluted animals due to their position at the top of the marine food chain. Audun Rikardsen, a professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, stated that about half of the world's killer whale population could die out within 50 to 100 years due to environmental toxins.
Rescuers have abandoned hope for a humpback whale stranded off Germany's Baltic Sea coast, expecting it to die. The humpback whale became stuck again on Tuesday in an inlet on the island of Poel near Wismar. The whale was freed last week from shallower waters at Timmendorfer Strand with an excavator but soon encountered difficulties again. The whale is breathing at highly irregular intervals and shows minimal activity, indicating it is very weak. It is not clear why the humpback whale swam into the Baltic Sea, far from its natural habitat.
In the course of 50 to 100 years, we estimate that about half of the world's killer whale population has died out due to environmental toxins.
An autopsy on the stranded sperm whale in Farsund showed its stomach was completely empty, with no foreign objects found. The municipality concludes the young male sperm whale starved to death, likely because it did not find food to eat in the North Sea. This finding connects to broader issues of food shortages affecting whales like the gray whales in the Pacific.
Research efforts continue as unanswered questions persist about whale behavior and mortality. John Calambokidis observed that many gray whales are looking very emaciated and thin, which often leads them to search for new feeding areas. The ongoing strandings and deaths highlight the complex interplay of environmental stressors, from Arctic ecosystem changes and fishing gear to pollution and acoustic disturbances.