Fin whale nearly 50 feet long washes ashore on Anchorage tidal flats

Biologists said they weren’t sure why the animal died and planned to continue their examination on Monday.

Comment from Gemini:

The attached reports detail several instances of deceased whales washing ashore in various locations, providing context for this recent event in Anchorage. A similar incident occurred in San Diego in December 2023, involving a 52-foot fin whale whose cause of death was undetermined. Several reports from 2017 document a humpback whale carcass decomposing on Kincaid Beach (also in the Upper Cook Inlet area), highlighting the ongoing issue of whale strandings in this region. One of these reports mentions the difficulty in determining cause of death due to decomposition, a challenge that may also be faced with this fin whale. Another 2017 report describes a necropsy performed on a 30-foot humpback whale in Anchorage. Finally, a 2016 observation from St. George, Alaska, describes a deceased 60-foot fin whale and connects the event to a larger Unusual Mortality Event (UME) affecting large whales in the Gulf of Alaska in 2015. This raises the important question of whether the current stranding might be related to a similar UME. The recurring nature of these strandings, across different species and locations, underscores the need for continued monitoring and research into the causes of these deaths. NOAA's website provides further information on UMEs and the importance of reporting stranded marine mammals: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/marine-mammal-unusual-mortality-events