BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) — A gray whale that washed up on a Bremerton beach was alive when the stranding was reported Wednesday morning but it was dead when a National Marine Fisheries employee arrived on the site on Dyes Inlet.
Spokesman Brian Gorman says the whale was very emaciated and may have been old, injured or loaded with parasites.
A necropsy is planned to determine the cause of death, but the whale may first be towed to a more-secluded beach where it will be left to naturally decay.
Gorman says the gray whale death is not surprising. He says a half-dozen typically die each year in Puget Sound or on the Washington coast.
