Gray Whale Stranded In California River Dies
KLAMATH RIVER, Calif. (AP) A 45-foot gray whale that's been stranded in Northern California's Klamath River for more than a month has died after beaching on a sandbar.
The female whale died around 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, said Sarah Wilkin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She was part of the team studying the whale and urging it back to the Pacific.
A cause of death will be determined in a necropsy after researchers move the marine mammal, Wilkin said.
"Based on the photos and everything, her fat layer looks good, so we don't think she starved to death," Wilkin said. "There's something else going on."
The mother gray whale and her 15-foot calf entered the river in late June during their northward journey from breeding grounds in Baja California up to Alaska.
Rescuers spotted what they believed to be the calf swimming back to sea on July 23 after weaning from the mother.
The whale had become a local celebrity of sorts in the area, with people gathering daily on a bridge spanning the river to get a look at the creature.
Ashala Tylor, a freelance photographer, has been making pictures of the whale for weeks, and said she saw the whale alive Monday night.
"I stayed until about 2 a.m. this morning and she was swimming around the bridge," Tylor said Tuesday. "When I came back this morning she was on her side as dead as can be. I was shocked when I saw her."
The last time wayward whales made headlines in California was in 2007, when a mother humpback and her calf journeyed 90 miles up the Sacramento River. The two whales were followed by crowds for more than two weeks before swimming back out to the Pacific Ocean at night.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
