Of gray whales that enter San Francisco Bay, nearly 18% die there, scientists find

Gray whales migrate from food-filled Arctic waters to the lagoons of Baja Mexico, but as the climate crisis accelerates, they have been spotted feeding in unexpected places. Recently, some have begun exploring the dangerously busy waters of San Francisco Bay. Scientists from the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences, investigating a surprisingly high death toll among gray whales, found that nearly 20 percent of individuals seen entering the bay died there, largely from collisions with boats. The team’s study appears in Frontiers in Marine Science.