A whale was found stranded on the Southwest Washington coast on Friday, adding to a growing number of the large marine mammals that have washed ashore across the region since the start of the year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the animal was a Baird’s beaked whale, discovered on the Long Beach Peninsula.
Michael Milstein, a press officer with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, said that Baird’s beaked whales are not commonly found stranded in Oregon, “as they tend to frequent more distant, deeper waters.”
Baird’s beaked whales, sometimes called giant bottlenose whales, are found throughout the North Pacific Ocean and nearby seas, including along the West Coast from California to Alaska. According to NOAA Fisheries, the species prefers cold, deep ocean waters but may occasionally appear near shore along narrow continental shelves.
So far this year, at least 19 whales have been found on shore up and down the West Coast. On Tuesday, a 40-foot gray whale washed ashore on Oregon’s Seaside Beach, its long tail moving with the ocean waves. It was the third dead whale to strand along the Oregon Coast this year.
OPB’s April Ehrlich contributed to reporting.
