Young gray whale stranded at Kalaloch

NOAA’s Marine Mammal Stranding Network working to help it back into the ocean.

Response teams from NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network are providing supportive care to a juvenile gray whale that became stranded on a section of beach in the Kalaloch area of Olympic National Park.

The whale is believed to have become stranded on the beach on Tuesday, NOAA said in a news release. “The whale is in poor condition but alive and has actively attempted to return to the ocean at high tide, but so far has been unsuccessful,” according to a report on Thursday.

Olympic National Park is monitoring the scene, and urges the public not to try to reach the whale.

Olympic National Park and NOAA Fisheries have coordinated the response to the stranding, with teams from the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network monitoring and providing supportive care for the whale. At some points near low tide the whale has been fully exposed for hours. The teams have sought to protect the whale from sunburn and scavengers.

The teams have also used buckets to haul water and keep the whale as wet as possible.

The Western Pacific population of gray whales numbers about 20,000 and the number of gray whale strandings have grown with the population. From 2006 to 2016, 205 gray whales stranded on the West Coast of the United States.