Newspaper Article Archive of
West Seattle Herald

A juvenile humpback whale that was seen in the waters off West Seattle on Saturday Aug. 6 stranded in early morning hours of Aug. 7 within feet of the South side of the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock, and died.

The whale, estimated by local whale observer Mark Sears as "around a year and a half old" was "very emaciated" but Sears said that the normal diet for humpbacks, schools of fish like herring, is plentiful in Puget Sound. He said, "I'm not the expert in these things but I'd guess it was sick. Sears was the manager of Colman Pool on Point Williams for more than three decades and has been working with a variety of agencies over time to keep an eye on the habits of marine mammals and whales in the area. "It was out here last night and we saw it and photographed it and it was doing fine."

On site measuring and examining the whale were members of the Marine Mammals Stranding Network including the Cascadia Research Network, Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Marine Mammals Investigations Unit, Seal Sitters. and others.

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