A dead male grey whale that was found floating between Sidney Island and James Island on Thursday has been towed to Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney for a necropsy.

A highly decomposed whale carcass was identified as a gray whale.

The Marine Mammal Center and California Academy of Sciences are reporting cause of death for one.

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

Gray whales are dying at twice the usual rate as a brutal migration unfolds, with whales washing up on Washington state beaches, apparently starved to death.

Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) found dead on the beach near Kivalina.

Ocean scientists are concerned about dead gray whales that have washed up on the US West Coast this year at the highest rate in almost two decades.

Sixteen gray and humpback whales have been reported stranded off Washington and Oregon since April 3, the largest number in nearly two decades.

A dead grey whale was found floating in Boundary Bay, near the United States border, this week. It's the sixth grey whale to have been found dead in B.C. waters this year.

About 70 gray whales have been spotted dead so far this year along the West Coast from California to Alaska, the most in almost 20 years. Many of them appeared malnourished, according to NOAA officials.

Since January 1, 2019, elevated gray whale strandings have occurred along the west coast of North America from Mexico through Alaska. This event has been declared an Unusual Mortality Event (UME).