A severe marine crisis is unfolding along the Pacific Coast as environmental groups warn that surging gray whale mortalities could make 2026 one of the deadliest years on record for the species.
Data linked to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revealed that 145 Pacific gray whales have been found stranded on beaches so far this year, including at least 20 in California and 13 in Alaska.
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This comes after 179 strandings were documented in 2025, raising alarms that the current population of approximately 13,000 individuals has plummeted to its lowest level since the 1970s.
Strandings Only a Fraction of Actual Deaths
Conservation groups report that beach strandings only represent a fraction of actual deaths because most whale carcasses sink at sea.
Experts utilize conservative metrics to estimate that the true offshore mortality rate for 2026 could already sit around 1,450 whales, driven primarily by starvation, ship collisions, and fishing gear entanglements.
Oceans Program Director Miyoko Sakashita explained that warming Arctic temperatures disrupt the marine ecosystem, forcing malnourished whales into hazardous, high-traffic coastal zones in search of food.
"There's much less prey for them, so they've undertaken this huge, long migration, and now they're on their way back up to Alaska, but they're looking for food, and they're pretty desperate, so they're ending up in these areas where there's lots of ships, and there's lots of fishing gear they have to traverse," said Miyoko Sakashita, Oceans Program Director.
