Oregon coast whale beachings part of larger trend as oceans undergo ‘profound changes’ – By Austin De Dios (The Oregonian/OregonLive) / Feb 8, 2023
After four dead whales washed up on Oregon beaches in January, it was natural to wonder: Is this normal?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tracks whale beachings, including in Oregon and Southwest Washington, and the agency has counted 233 of them along those coasts since 1989.
The short answer: the deaths of the sperm whale and three gray whales last month is consistent with a larger trend endangering the gray whale population on the West Coast and Alaska. Since 2016, it has plummeted 38%, according to the NOAA.
The coastline from Alaska to Mexico has seen an increase in gray whale strandings since 2019, according to Jim Rice, stranding program manager at the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute. Of the whales stranded since 1989, 57 were found in the past five years – around 24% – with 19 of those whales beached in 2019 alone.
