San Francisco, CA
Why did four whales wash up in San Francisco Bay in a week and a half?
The juvenile minke whale had been spotted swimming around San Francisco Bay for nearly a week by the time she beached herself off the coast of Emeryville on April 8. Scientists had thought she seemed healthy, but after an examination, they determined she was acting abnormally and had to be euthanized due to illness.
It was the fourth whale death in the San Francisco Bay in a week and a half. The other three were gray whales, the first of which—a 36-foot-long female—washed up at Black Sands Beach in the Marin Headlands on March 30. Its cause of death remains unknown.
On April 2, a deceased adult male gray whale was found floating east of Angel Island; its cause of death is also not known, according to the Marine Mammal Center. Then, a subadult male gray whale washed ashore at Fort Point Rock Beach near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on April 4, and scientists determined that it likely died due to a vessel strike, according to the mammal center.
Taken together, the deaths have raised the specter of past “unusual mortality events” that caused whales to die in higher-than-normal numbers.
“This is unusual,” said Kathi George, director of Cetacean Conservation Biology at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. “It takes me back to several years ago when we did have a large number of strandings happen at the same time.”
While the unusually high number of whales beaching in such a short span is abnormal, the number of whales who have died around the bay for the year has remained in line with typical levels, scientists say.
“This is the normal time of year when gray whales are doing their northward migration from Mexico up to Alaska, so it’s not uncommon for us to have gray whales in and around San Francisco Bay in April and May each year,” said Moe Flannery, who leads the marine mammal necropsy team at the California Academy of Sciences.
“Although they seem high because they’re concentrated into a short period of time, the numbers of dead and stranded are not any different than the recent previous years.”
Whales can die for “a number of reasons”—from diseases to malnutrition to vessel strikes, George said.
“It’s coincidental that everything happened in a week and a half, but there are a lot of whales out there right now, and some of their physical condition that they’re in when they arrive in the bay may make them more susceptible to human impacts if they’re not as healthy,” she said.
Scientists began observing whales entering the San Francisco Bay around 2016 as they completed their annual migration between Mexico and the sub-Arctic, George said. The whales do not feed while they are in their breeding grounds in Mexico, and expend a lot of energy mating, nursing babies and giving birth before facing a long journey back north to their feeding grounds, she added.
Because of this energy expenditure, scientists have seen the gray whales attempt to feed in new locations—including San Francisco Bay, George said. Their increased appearance in the bay could also potentially be explained as whales seeking a place to rest before continuing the migration, or a reaction to climate change, warming ocean temperatures and prey availability.
The Marine Mammal Center has tracked at least 18 individual whales swimming in the bay this year, and sightings of gray whales have been reported almost every day since mid-March, George said. The majority of the whale sightings have been reported east of Angel Island, said Giancarlo Rulli, the associate director of public relations for the Marine Mammal Center.
Between 2019 and 2023, gray whales were dying in much higher numbers due to an unusual mortality event, which was declared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. Gray whales lost more than 40% of their population in four years, Rulli said. During this time, there were 347 gray whale strandings in the United States, according to NOAA.
“These whales basically left the Arctic with a half tank,” Rulli said. “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.”
Between January and April 2019, which was the first year of the unusual mortality event, 34 dead gray whales washed up on California’s coast, Flannery said. Seven have so far this year.
George said that whether the recent deaths could be the start of an unusual mortality event is “still under discussion and review,” adding that the data collected from these strandings will help scientists understand “the bigger picture of what’s happening.”
“We’re not there yet,” she said, adding that scientists have to look at their migratory range holistically.
Whales will continue to appear in the bay through mid-May as they continue their migration north, George said.
Flannery added that anyone using the water “needs to be more aware of the animals that are sharing that environment.”
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Santa Rosa prepares for next big earthquake
The Great 1906 earthquake devastated the Bay Area, destroying much of San Francisco and killing more than 3,000 people. The city marked the quakes 120th anniversary this weekend, but whats not as widely recognized is the damage to surrounding comunities like Santa Rosa.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. – While the Great 1906 Earthquake was a centerpiece of news around the world when its massive damage and fire destroyed much of San Francisco and took 3,000 lives, another far smaller, far less famous town, suffered massive damage almost forgotten by history.
Nearly forgotten
On this day 120 years ago, stunned people were digging for survivors two nights after the quake. Like a demon in the night, the Great 1906 Earthquake also came to Santa Rosa also bent on mass death and destruction.
Eric Stanley is the history curator and deputy director of the Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa that supplied these pictures. “Santa Rosa, in particular, was devastated by the 1906 earthquake,” he said.
Survivors were shaken awake as whole buildings collapsed around them or on them. “A good portion, a really significant portion, of downtown Santa Rosa was completely destroyed,” said Stanley.
Many never woke up; crushed to death in their sleep. There were over a hundred people killed in the 1906 earthquake in Santa Rosa that only had 7,000 people in it at the time,” said the curator.
Active fault line
Sixty-three years later, in 1969, a time of budding, but far better science-based building codes, a double shaker nonetheless did significant damage and killed one person. “Even understanding all those things, you kind of at the earlier stage of that in the sixties,” said Stanley.
Today, four of Santa Rosa’s School buildings lie near or on the Rodgers Creek Earthquake Fault, capable of up to a 7.3 magnitude rupture. One is already closed with another due to close at the end of the school year for budgetary reasons.
That leaves two elementary schools, Hidden Valley, alongside the fault and Proctor, on the fault. The school board says both are seismically sound and safe to continue operating. “The two that are remaining open are both the ones that have the potential and the ability to grow because the entire site is not impacted by the fault line,” said Nick Caston, Santa Rosa City School Board president.
Staying prepared
In other words, things can and will eventually be moved around.
“What we’re gonna end up having to do is redesign the campus over the next several decades to have our fields and our parking in the front, which are totally acceptable to be over a fault line and actually move our academic builds and our student-serving buildings to the back,” said Caston.
Ultimately, the pictures and relics museums hold from natural disasters are given to those who come, a lesson and a warning. “Real people went through these experiences and we really do have to be aware of that and do our very best to prepare for those kinds of things,” said Stanley.
The 1933 Field Act requires earthquake-safe construction of schools, with evolving seismic codes as we learn more.
A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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