MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — Two dead gray whales have washed ashore in recent days in Washington. One was found near Deception Pass and one near Samish Island in northwest Washington.
Howard Garrett of Orca Network, a Whidbey Island-based marine mammal advocacy group, says whale experts will try to determine the cause of death through necropsies.
Garrett says it’s not known whether the deaths are related to four recent documented attacks on gray whales by transient killer whales in Puget Sound. Garrett says a whale attacked by a pod of killer whales in front of a boatload of whale watchers on Sunday appears to be OK. The male whale named “Patch” has frequented Puget Sound for the past 19 years. The whale advocate says Patch was spotted Monday swimming with other gray whales.
