An unusually high number of gray whales have recently been observed in the San Francisco Bay, according to marine specialists, but two of the large mammals died last week.
One of the whales died from severe malnutrition, according to the Marine Mammal Center, which received reports of five gray whales in the bay last week and another three this week. There are rarely that many gray whales in the vicinity at once, center officials said.
Dr. Padraig Duignan of the center in Sausalito hypothesized that the whales were searching for food during their migration from Alaska to Baja California.
"In the past, probably San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay would have been excellent feeding areas for them, but with human activity and industrialization, it's not so good anymore," he said.
Their food supply near the Arctic may also be changing due to climate change, Duignan said.
To protect the whales, he called for people to avoid discarding plastics in the water.
"Stop…using all these kind of things that get in the water, cause pollution, cause animals to ingest these things and block up their digestive tract," he said.
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