The gray whale found dead in the Willapa River over the weekend was malnourished and had suffered internal injuries, biologists said Tuesday.
The whale was already in a “very debilitated state” when it entered the Southwest Washington river near Willapa Bay and traveled 20 miles inland, according to the marine wildlife nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective. The internal injuries were related to being wrapped around woody debris before it died near Raymond, Pacific County.
Researchers haven’t been able to determine sex but found it was closer to adult size, measuring larger than first reported.
Dubbed “Willapa Willy” on social media, the gray whale was the third to die in Southwest Washington last week. Two dead gray whales washed ashore Thursday on Copalis Beach in Grays Harbor County. Both the male and female were also malnourished, and the male had significant head trauma consistent with being hit by a ship.
The biologists, along with help from members of the Chinook and Shoalwater Bay tribes, suspect the third whale traveled into and up the river because of its weakened condition. Earlier in the week, the whale had been spotted in the river behaving normally, but thin. Researchers opted not to intervene, which ended up being the correct move, the Cascadia Research Collective said.
“It is challenging to redirect free-swimming baleen whales based on similar events in other locations,” the collective posted on Facebook. “Our necropsy results support the decision to not take immediate aggressive actions, which would have further stressed the whale and not changed the ultimate outcome.”
The whale will naturally decompose at the site, and its bones will be collected for cultural use by the Chinook and Shoalwater Bay tribes.
