Gray whale dies days after swimming up Washington’s Willapa River

Gray whales undertake long spring time migrations north up the Pacific Coast to feed in the Arctic using up their nutritional reserves along the way, John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, told the Associated Press. “When that happens, you often see gray whales in a more desperate search for new areas to feed,” he added. “That’s the most likely context for this whale.”