Dead gray whales plague Washington coast | FOX 13 Seattle

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]A stretch of Washington coastline is sadly becoming a gray whale graveyard.

[00:00:04]Fox 13's Lauren Donovan is in Ocean Shores where buried beneath the sand is a much larger story.

[00:00:13]Most people will never know that they're sitting on top of what, you know, locals would consider hallowed ground. At first glance, it looks like any old tangle of driftwood over at North Jetty Beach, but look again. He said go to the beach and look for the logs that don't look like they were placed by the ocean. These logs were removed, then replaced to make way for a gray whale. Generations from now, there will be whale bones here on the beach and people will wonder where that came from. Dozens of tons tucked away hidden beneath the sand. Part of the whale is here and then extends all the way back there where it looks like it was dug out. So, it's that big?

[00:00:50]>> Yeah, it's it's a massive, you know, probably in excess of 30 ft. This is the fourth one in our little stretch of beach here within, you know, the 7-mi run of Ocean Shores. The hard truth is Ocean Shores is becoming a gray whale graveyard. Marshall Reed with the city tells me a few beachings a year is typical here, but this recent surge is raising concerns. Since April, 18 have been discovered dead on the Washington coast. So, this whale actually landed down closer to the water where those people are are looking at the shore birds. The goal here was to keep the remains undisturbed. So, crews used an excavator to pull the whale above the tide line. He was amazed at how big and heavy the the whales are.

[00:01:34]He's not able to pick them up and carry them up here. He actually has to drag them in the sand. And scientists say many of these whales are arriving in rough shape. A starvation appears to be driving many of the strandings.

[00:01:46]>> Historically, we're sitting not very far from the last big American whaling operation that happened in Bay City, probably less than a mile and a half from here. John Shaw, of Aberdeen City Council, reminds me that in the late 1800s, once people were hunting gray whales to the brink. Now, they're washing ashore, dying on their own. It's kind of an interesting historical cycle that we're in right now to where every whale is really important to people that we see out on the beach.

[00:02:15]Marshall says he hopes this isn't the new normal, and when one day we look back at it >> Wow, remember back in 2026 where we had four of them in a month? Uh we hope that that that's how we see it, not boy, I wish we were back in 2026 where there was only four. I hope the trend doesn't go that way. Reporting in Ocean Shores, Lauren Donovan, Fox 13 News.