San Francisco, CA
Scientists investigate as whale deaths surge in San Francisco Bay
A total of 15 whales, including 14 gray whales and one minke whale, have died so far in 2025, according to a joint press release from California Academy of Sciences and the Marine Mammal Center.
“The reason or potential reasons behind the massive spike in sightings this year are still being investigated by researchers,” the release said.
The latest death, a gray whale found in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday, marked the sixth whale death in as many days.
Newsweek reached out via email to the California Academy of Sciences and the Marine Mammal Center on Saturday during non-working hours for more information.
Why It Matters
There has been “unusually high number of sightings” of whales in the region this year but there has also been an increase in deaths. The whale population has seen a 45 percent decrease since the 2019- 2023 Unusual Mortality Event (UME), according to the release.
A record-low number of newborn whales was also seen this year, causing concern among researchers for the long-term outlook for the North Pacific gray whales, following the second UME in a 20-year period.
“These whales basically left the Arctic with a half tank,” Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, recently told Phys.org about the other deceased whales discovered in the region.
“The food sources that they were normally accustomed to eating that were highly nutritious for this massive, 10,000–12,000-mile journey, had moved farther away due to climate change, and as a result, these whales were left to forage on food matter that was much less nutritious.”
What To Know
The whale on Wednesday was found near the Alamere Falls in Point Reyes National Seashore, the joint release said, which is about 30 miles northwest of San Francisco.
While some of the deceased mammals have been necropsied, others have either been too far decomposed or stranded in areas that are inaccessible, making it difficult to pin these deaths on one similar cause.
While it is not unusual to see whales in the region as they migrate, the number of deaths is the highest it has been, including in 2019 when 14 whales were found deceased in the UME, according to the release.
The number of deaths currently matches the record of 15 for all of 2021, the release said. At least three of these deaths have been attributed to suspected vessel strikes, but others remain undetermined.
The whales that have been spotted alive have been observed to be either regular size or emaciated.
There are a total of 33 confirmed gray whale sightings in the San Francisco Bay this year, compared to only six seen last year, with about a third of those whales remaining in the bay for about 20 days.
Whale carcasses have been found as far north as Alamere Falls, as far west as Farallon Islands and as inland as Berkeley.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
What People Are Saying
The California Academy of Sciences and partners at The Marine Mammal Center said in the press release: “With San Francisco Bay serving as a shared space for commerce and increased gray whale activity, experts at the Academy and the Center note it’s vital that all boaters—from large commercial vessels to sailboats—be ‘whale aware’ and continue to slow down. Gray whales often have a very low profile in the water that can make them difficult to sight, unlike other coastal whales like humpback whales.”
What Happens Next
The results of the necropsy on the whale found on Wednesday are still pending, complicated by a number of factors due to “inaccessible locations that hinder full post-mortem investigations, as well as poor tissue quality from advanced decomposition, and the lack of available locations to tow for further investigation.”
Meanwhile, the whales that are alive are expected to be in “the bay for another one to two weeks before continuing their annual northern migration to arctic feeding grounds,” according to the release.
If people do see whales, they can report them through an app called Whale Alert or the Marine Mammal Center website. Sightings of dead whales should be reported to the Academy’s department of Ornithology and Mammalogy.
San Francisco, CA
Video: Mountain Lion Spotted in San Francisco
new video loaded: Mountain Lion Spotted in San Francisco
transcript
transcript
Mountain Lion Spotted in San Francisco
Residents were shocked to see a young mountain lion roaming the streets of San Francisco this week. Local animal control agencies were able to capture and tranquilize it on Tuesday.
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Swear to God, am I tripping? There’s a mountain lion. What is that? I can see it. Oh my God. What the. Dude!
By Cynthia Silva
January 27, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Animal control locates mountain lion in San Francisco
A young mountain lion that was spotted Monday night in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood has been located, city officials said.
Around 6:20 a.m. Tuesday, city officials said San Francisco Animal Care and Control found the mountain lion and that they are working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to manage the situation. No injuries were reported.
A biologist is on their way to the scene, with the plan to tranquilize the animal and move it to a suitable location, officials said.
The mountain lion was first reported Monday night after being seen near Octavia Street and Pacific Avenue, according to an alert from the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.
Animal Care and Control officials said experts believe the animal is about a year old. It had also been seen earlier Monday morning near Lafayette Park, just a few blocks from the later sighting.
City officials said the mountain lion was likely lost and may have been trying to move south out of the city.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Unified educators nearing final days for vote on whether to strike
After months of back and forth between educators and the San Francisco school district, Georgie Gibbs is ready to strike.
“But every year we have to figure out what staffing we’re going to have at our school, and every year there’s less money to staff our site, and that’s hard,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs is an elementary school teacher and a member of the United Educators of San Francisco, a union for school staff. Since March, they’ve requested higher wages, stable health insurance, and more support for special education teachers.
“At our site, we have special day classes which are self-contained, special education classrooms, and those, one of our classrooms has not had a full-time teacher for a whole entire year in three years,” Gibbs said.
In their latest offer in January, the district proposed the following three-year stabilization plan.
The district proposed a path to fully funded family health benefits, a 6 percent raise over three years, along with addressing staffing shortages for special education. The union rejected it.
- Identifying a fiscal pathway for the District to fully fund family health benefits
- 6% raise over three years (2% each year for next three years)
- Salary rate augmentations for hard-to-staff special education paraeducators
- Solutions to address special education workload with a focused pilot program
Union president Cassandra Curiel says members are casting their final round of votes for a strike.
“The district hasn’t changed their position since May of 2025. That is an untenable condition for us to be in,” Curiel said.
If both groups don’t come to an agreement, the union’s more than 6,000 members will strike for the first time in nearly 50 years.
“Being in our schools is the place we want to be, but working for San Francisco Unified can be complicated at best,” Curiel said.
Officials say the district is planning for more budget cuts in the next school year, which plays a role in negotiations.
A spokesperson for the district wrote:
“We know many of you are closely following the ongoing negotiations between our district and United Educators of San Francisco (UESF).
We are disappointed to share that we did not reach an agreement with UESF after today’s fact-finding session (part of the formal bargaining process). SFUSD remains committed to negotiating in good faith with our labor partners and to reaching an agreement that honors our educators while also balancing the need to be fiscally responsible.
Our goal is to have a stable district. We want to reach an agreement that supports our valued educators. However, we must also be able to afford the agreement long-term so that we can continue serving students now and in the future.”
Havah Kelley told CBS News Bay Area that her son, who has a learning disability, was transferred outside of the district because there aren’t enough special needs teachers.
“Especially since COVID, the high teacher turnover, the shortages, and just a myriad of other reasons, he was not getting the services that he needed,” Kelley said.
That experience makes her feel a strike is necessary, but she knows there would be real-life consequences.
“It would be ideal if we could avoid a strike. That’s a definite, and I’m not going to say otherwise,” Kelly said. “Any type of disruption, for our kids, we have almost immediate regression.”
Union members are holding their final vote to authorize a strike. If the majority votes yes, it is likely SFUSD educators will strike for the first time since 1979. The last day to vote is Jan. 28.
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