23rd dead whale of 2025 washes up in the Bay Area

(KRON) — The San Francisco Bay Area is averaging close to one dead whale a week in 2025.

The Bay Area’s 23rd dead whale of the year washed up at Rockaway Beach in Pacifica on June 21, according to the Marine Mammal Center. The carcass is a young gray whale.

The death is the region’s first suspected predatory whale death of the year, experts say. Eight of the 23 whales are suspected to have died of vessel strike. Most of this year’s whale deaths have no known cause.

“Our team investigated and determined it is a subadult female gray whale,” the Marine Mammal Center told KRON4. “No necropsy was permitted, but based on external injuries the probable cause of death was orca predation.”

The Bay Area’s annual whale death toll is at its highest since 2000, the Marine Mammal Center said. Read more about this year’s whale strandings at the Marine Mammal Center’s website.