People look at a beached dead gray whale at Ocean Beach on May 6 in San Francisco, California. The Marine Mammal Center will perform a necropsy of the whale on Tuesday to determine the cause of death. (CNN) — A dead gray whale washed ashore on a San Francisco beach Monday morning – the ninth such death in the Bay Area this year, scientists at the Marine Mammal Center said. “The death of nine gray whales in the San Francisco Bay Area this year is a cause for serious concern and reinforces the need to continue to perform and share the results of these type of investigations with key decision-makers,” Dr. Padraig Duignan, Chief Research Pathologist at the center, said. A necropsy will be performed on the whale Tuesday, the Marine Mammal Center said. 1/2: The Marine Mammal Center confirms a dead gray whale washed ashore early this morning at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Our scientists & partners plan to perform a necropsy, or animal autopsy, tomorrow in an attempt to determine the cause of death. 📸 Credit Sarah Maria Curran pic.twitter.com/6sDhSnhz8H — The Marine Mammal Center (@TMMC) May 6, 2019 Blunt force trauma from ships, malnutrition and entanglements are the most common causes of death in whales, the center said. Necropsies have confirmed the cause of seven of the previous eight whale deaths this year. Three whales died from ship strikes and four from malnutrition. The cause of death of the eighth whale has not been determined. “It is critical for scientists to conduct in-depth necropsies to better understand why animals are dying,” the center said in a news release. “Whales and other marine mammals face numerous human-caused threats and solutions must be found to protect healthy and vulnerable species alike,” the center said. Reports of whales in ‘poor body condition’ Today, there are about 26,000 gray whales, found only in the Pacific Ocean, according to the center. There are more gray whales around the San Francisco area than usual this time of year, as they migrate north. The center says biologists have observed gray whales “in poor body condition” this year, possibly “due to anomalous oceanic conditions” which have contributed to “shifting food sources.” The 90,000-pound creatures were once on the brink of extinction. In the late 1800s and again in the early 1900s, the gray whale population dropped to less than 2,000 after they had been hunted by humans. In 1946, an international agreement to stop hunting them helped put their numbers back on track and in 1994 they were taken off the Endangered Species List. CNN’s Sarah Moon contributed to this report.<doc-sep>A dead gray whale washed up early Monday morning at Ocean Beach in San Francisco to become the ninth whale to turn up dead in the Bay Area in the last two months, authorities said. Someone called the center at 6:30 a.m. to report the whale, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Center said. Eight other gray whales have washed up onto Bay Area shores over the past two months. Experts do not know the length, age or sex of the gray whale found Monday. Scientists at the center will attempt to determine the cause of death Tuesday during a necropsy, or animal autopsy. “The death of nine gray whales in the San Francisco Bay Area this year is a cause for serious concern and reinforces the need to continue to perform and share the results of these type of investigations with key decision-makers,” Dr. Padraig Duignan, the center’s chief research pathologist, said in a statement. Three of the whales died from ship strikes and four from malnutrition, according to the center. Experts have not determined how the eighth whale died. Gray whales are among the most frequently sighted whales in the state. They have one of the longest migration routes of any whale, traveling 11,000 miles between Baja California and Alaska, officials said. “Biologists have observed gray whales in poor body condition during their annual migration this year, potentially due to anomalous oceanographic conditions over the past few years that have contributed to shifting food sources,” officials said. Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu<doc-sep>Four of the nine whale deaths counted and studied by the Marine Mammal Center since March 10 were determined to have been caused by malnutrition, while three were caused by ship strikes. A ship strike is suspected to have killed a fourth whale, and the cause of death for one animal, found April 30, has not been determined.<doc-sep>
It's the ninth such whale death in the region this year. A dead gray whale washed ashore California's San Francisco Bay Area on Monday -- the ninth one this year, scientists said. The dead whale was found on Ocean Beach in San Francisco early Monday morning. Scientists will perform a necropsy on the animal Tuesday to determine the cause of death, according to The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, which has completed necropsies on eight beached gray whales in the region so far this year. The length, age and sex of the ninth whale was not immediately disclosed. “The death of nine gray whales in the San Francisco Bay Area this year is a cause for serious concern and reinforces the need to continue to perform and share the results of these type of investigations with key decision-makers,” Dr. Padraig Duignan, chief research pathologist at The Marine Mammal Center, said in a statement. Blunt-force trauma from ship strikes, malnutrition and entanglements are the most common causes of death in whales that The Marine Mammal Center's research team has investigated. The previous necropsies this year confirmed that four died from malnutrition and three died from ship strikes. The cause of death of the eighth whale has yet to be determined, according to the center. The center said biologists have seen gray whales in "poor body condition" in recent months, possibly due to "anomalous oceanographic conditions over the past few years that have contributed to shifting food sources." The numbers of gray whales in the San Francisco Bay Area are greater than usual this time of year as the population migrates north, according to the center. “We are committed to partnering with organizations and individuals to find long-term environmental solutions to prevent these deaths in the future," Duignan said. Meanwhile, more than a dozen dead gray whales have been found along shorelines in nearby Washington state. The total number of strandings on the West Coast this year is now at least 46, compared to 25 for all of last year, according to ABC Seattle affiliate KOMO.