The humpback whale was first reported dead or stranded on Killisnoo Island on Feb. 10th, by Alaska Marine Highway System personnel, said Sadie Wright, a large whale entanglement response coordinator with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division. The animal with a long history in the area has been necropsied.

Between 2015 and 2020, two Unusual Mortality Events have been declared for wales along the western coast of British Colombia and the United States, indicating the possibility of a disturbance to the marine ecosystem.

A dead juvenile female humpback whale near Dolgoi Island

Dead gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) reported off the Alaska Peninsula