SEATTLE, Wash. – A gray whale carcass washed ashore on Bainbridge Island west of Seattle.
A spokesman at NOAA tells The Seattle Times the whale that washed up Tuesday appeared to be an adult and had been dead for a while.
It was not immediately clear how the whale died.
A team from the Cascadia Research Collective took photos and samples of its skin and blubber.
Researchers are trying to understand why so many gray whales have been found dead and stranded on beaches since the spring of 2019.