Marine biologists are sounding the warning bells over an alarming trend in the San Francisco Bay Area: Whales are dying at an unprecedented level in the city’s waters. While whales have always died in the San Francisco Bay Area, the number of deaths has reached a fever point, with 2025 already seeing more dead whales than any year in the past quarter century. And scientists are concerned about what this could mean for both the whales and San Francisco’s marine biome.
‘Unusually high number’ of whales spotted
At least 24 dead whales have been discovered in the waters near San Francisco this year, according to the California Academy of Sciences. This is the highest number of dead whales seen in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2000. One notable incident occurred this past May when five whales “were found dead in just one week,” said CBS News.
The dead whales come from a variety of species. The majority of them, 21, have been grey whales, though two baleen whales and one minke whale have also died. This is a significantly higher death total of whale deaths at this time in 2024 than the last few years, compared to 14 that died in 2019 and 15 in 2021.
There has also been an “unusually high number” of whale sightings this year in the Bay Area, with “more than 30 individual gray whales confirmed via photo identification,” said the California Academy of Sciences. In comparison, only “six gray whales were sighted in the bay” in all of 2024.
‘If you see a blow, go slow’
Many of these whales have been killed by boat strikes as the whales were migrating, scientists say. Grey whales in particular migrate through the region to reach Arctic feeding waters. 2024’s increase in migrating whales suggests the whales are becoming more prevalent and therefore harder for boaters to avoid. This often leads to collisions with vessels. Gray whales “have a very low profile in the water that can make them difficult to sight, unlike other coastal whales like humpback whales,” said the California Academy of Sciences…