The Marine Mammal Center was alerted to the presence of a partially decomposed body of a female humpback on Baker Beach, California, early on Tuesday, The Associated Press reports.
Scientists and partners with The Marine Mammal Center performed necroscopy on a dead humpback whale to determine the cause of death. At this stage, it is not clear what caused the 37-foot whale to wash ashore.
According to The Marine Mammal Center, more details of what happened to the juvenile whale should be available after the publication of a final necroscopy report. In the meantime, researchers have asked beachgoers to maintain a safe distance from the body to respect the state’s shelter-in-place orders and avoid any diseases the whale may have have.
Dr. Pádraig Duignan, chief pathologist at the Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center told San Francisco Gate: “As we investigate why this whale died, we ask people to keep their distance from the whale, not only because of shelter-in-place orders but also due to any potential diseases the animal might have that could transmit to people.
“Whale necropsies are critical to provide insights into the overall health of these animals and their ocean environment, including human activity that can impact them, with the goal of understanding how best to protect these magnificent animals.”
Baker Beach is in the Golden Gate National Recreation Center, which the National Park Service (NPS) describes as one of the largest urban parks in the world.
According to Julian Espinoza, a NPS spokesman, the plan is to bury the body of the whale on site once scientists have completed their analysis. She explained this is to “to reduce its public safety hazard,” The Associated Press reports.
The humpback whale’s scientific name, Megaptera novaeangliae, means large-winged of New England.
According to the The Marine Mammal Center, there are around 15,000 individual humpbacks in the North Pacific, which belong to at least four populations. Those that gather around the coast of California in winter months will migrate to breeding grounds in Mexico and Costa Rica for summer.
According to The San Francisco Chronicle, humpback whales were first seen entering the San Francisco Bay in notable numbers in early 2016. Biologists have said the rise in the number of humpbacks spotted in the bay could be a product of increasing population numbers.
“As the humpback whale population has increased, we’ve seen more and more whales showing up in new areas where we haven’t seen them,” John Calambokidis, a senior research biologist for the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective, told the paper. “All I can say is it fits the pattern of increased numbers.”
