An increasing number of gray whales are turning up dead in Bay Area waters, with five more in just the past week, the Marine Mammal Center said.

The most recent reports of whale carcasses were between May 21 and May 26. The California Academy of Sciences said this brings the total number of dead whales found in the Bay Area in 2025 to fourteen, at least three of which were killed by vessel strikes. 

The Marine Mammal Centers says it has not responded to this many whale deaths since the 

Scientists have not determined what killed the whales the five recently found whales:

• May 26, 2025: Suspected gray whale, Alcatraz; cause of death: undetermined (no necropsy performed)
• May 26, 2025: Gray whale, Point Bonita; cause of death: undetermined (no necropsy performed)
• May 22, 2025: Subadult female gray whale, Berkeley; cause of death: undetermined (no necropsy performed)
• May 22, 2025: Gray whale, Fisherman's Bay, Southeast Farallon Island; cause of death: undetermined (no necropsy performed)
• May 21, 2025: Yearling gray whale, Bolinas; cause of death: undetermined (partial necropsy conducted on May 23, inconclusive)

Source: California Academy of Sciences

According to the Mammal Center's Cetacean Conservation Biology Team, there have been 33 individual gray whales spotted in the Bay Area in 2025. The center said that is up from the four gray whales that were sighted in 2024.

• Whales