The Whale Museum News

UPDATE: The Department of Fisheries and Oceans in British Columbia has identified this whale as "Offshore 0319" who was last seen off the west coast of Vancouver Island in September.

TWM Editor's Note: On Thursday evening, an email came into The Whale Museum's hotline from a private citizen in the San Francisco, CA area stating that he had found a dead killer whale on a beach near Pt. Reyes National Seashore. With this information, TWM was able to contact the appropriate response parties down in California. Over the weekend, several crucial samples were obtained from this whale which will hopefully ascertain the cause of death as well as the ecotype of this stranded animal. This is another good example of how a private citizen can really make a difference -- by promptly reporting this stranding, responders were able to get on scene quickly enough to gather fresh samples, as well as photographs and measurements.

Photo by Richard James

Killer whale washes up on Marin beach

Source: Gary Klien, Marin Independent Journal

Wildlife officials are trying to determine the cause of death of a killer whale that washed ashore on a Point Reyes beach.

"It's pretty rare to see an orca washed up on shore around here," said Jim Oswald, spokesman for the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands, which is investigating the death along with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

The orca was a male juvenile, about 18 feet long, that had washed up in an isolated area along Driftwood Beach, just north of McClure's Beach, late last week.

The team from the mammal center and academy went to the site Saturday and removed the orca's head and dorsal fin and took samples of its skin for study to determine a cause of death.

"The cause of death is still undetermined," said Andrew Ng, spokesman for the academy. "There were possible signs of trauma."

Whether that trauma was caused by another mammal or a ship strike was still to be determined, officials said. Tides were expected to carry the orca's carcass back out to sea.

The black-and-white mammals, which can grow up to 30 feet long and weigh as much as 12,000 pounds, are the largest species of the dolphin family and considered highly social and intelligent creatures.

They can live to age 50 and older, and travel in pods in which they are often related to one another. Killer whales prey on fish, but occasionally attack sharks, gray whales, seals, sea lions and blue whales.

"In the last five or six years we have seen orcas off the (Marin) Headlands," said John Dell'Osso, a spokesman for the Point Reyes National Seashore. "They may be following prey that are coming here."

Gray whales are now migrating from Alaska down to Mexico. It's possible the dead orca was making the same migration, he said.

"I do not ever remember an orca washing up on shore out here," said Dell'Osso, who has worked at the seashore for 27 years.