BREMERTON — A gray whale that washed up on a Bremerton beach was alive when the stranding was reported Wednesday morning but it was dead when a National Marine Fisheries employee arrived on the site on Dyes Inlet.
Spokesman Brian Gorman said the whale was very emaciated and may have been old, injured or loaded with parasites.
A necropsy is planned to determine the cause of death, but the whale may first be towed to a more-secluded beach where it will be left to naturally decay.
Gorman said the gray whale death is not surprising. He said a half-dozen typically die each year in Puget Sound or on the Washington coast.
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