MUKILTEO — Gray whales were spotted in two separate locations near Mukilteo and Whidbey Island on Thursday, but neither appeared to be the one seen in Everett earlier in the week.
A gray whale was spotted in the early afternoon off the beach in Greenbank, said Howard Garrett, director of the Orca Network, a Whidbey Island nonprofit group that works on behalf of whales and their habitat.
Garrett was there, watching the whale.
“This one looks healthy right now,” he said Thursday. “It’s feeding.”
The whale was there from about 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. before moving up the coast, Garrett said.
The gray whale seen in Everett last Saturday and Monday appeared emaciated and in poor health, experts said. That whale likely was a stray that became hungry and disoriented, Garrett said.
Garrett said he didn’t think the whale in Greenbank was the same one seen near the mouth of the Snohomish River and the Everett Marina.
“It’s acting like it knows where it is,” he said.
Another whale was spotted about 11:30 a.m. Thursday by a KIRO-TV news helicopter about a half-mile off the Mukilteo ferry dock. It’s not known if that was the emaciated whale.
Gray whales that live off the coast of North America migrate between Alaska and Mexico each year. They stop in Western Washington waters to rest and feed on their way north in the springtime.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
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