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PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating after a gray whale washed up on the shores of Fox Island in Pierce County on Saturday, just steps away from a residential property.
A research team with WDFW identified the whale as a 41-foot long gray whale. The department said the whale matches the description of an emaciated gray whale that had been spotted throughout Puget Sound in the last few weeks, continuing a recent yearslong trend of emaciated gray whales washing on on Pacific shores.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife is partnering with the West Coast Mammal Stranding Network to gather samples and perform an autopsy of the whale in hopes of saving future whales from a similar fate.
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