
Scientists are investigating a sharp rise in the number of whales killed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2025 even as local whale pods struggle to recover from a massive die-off in 2019.
The California Academy of Sciences said on Monday that researchers had logged the deaths of 21 gray whales, two unidentified baleen whales, and one minke whale in waters near San Francisco this year so far, compared to 14 in 2019 and 15 in 2021.