Gray whale ashore near Johnson Point

A 10,000-pound, 28-foot dead gray whale washed ashore near Johnson Point, where researchers examined it Monday.

The whale wasn’t as big as it should have been, and lack of food contributed to its death, which was the first stranding of a large marine mammal this far south in Puget Sound in two years, a researcher said.

The whale was abnormally thin for its age of 1- or 2-years old, said John Calambokidis, a research biologist for Olympia-based Cascadia Research.

“Starvation was an element of it, and there may be other elements we discover during the examination,” he said.

The whale created a stir among neighbors living along Cascade Loop Northeast, who discovered the carcass Sunday, with some taking pictures as Cascadia researchers took measurements and photographs. The whale was on its belly, so researchers were unable to determine its sex.

About 17,000 gray whales of the eastern Pacific are migrating back to their feeding grounds off the Alaska coast from a winter in the waters off Baja California in Mexico. The whales’ feeding during the summer and fall allows them to accumulate a thick layer of blubber that provides the energy they need during their northward and southward migrations and time spent off Mexico.

It’s possible the whale didn’t catch enough food last year to survive the fasting months, Calambokidis said.

It’s not uncommon for gray whales to be spotted in the southern waters of Puget Sound, Calambokidis said.

There were sightings of a gray whale in Seattle and in Budd and Eld inlets recently, although it is not clear whether it was the same whale, the researcher said.

Cascadia Research, with assistance from Seattle Shellfish, towed the carcass off the private stretch of rocky beach Monday night to another area so researchers could do an autopsy and it can decompose without causing problems.

Katie Gibbons, the 13-year-old daughter of Seattle Shellfish owner Jim Gibbons, and three of her friends spotted the dead whale Sunday afternoon.

She initially thought it was a pile of rocks, until seeing the tail.

“I thought it was a sea lion,” she said. “From a distance, it looked much smaller.”

She was disappointed when she found out the whale was dead, holding out hope it could be saved.

This is the second stranding of a gray whale on Washington shores this year, Calambokidis said. The peak stranding season is April through June.

There were 19 gray whale strandings on the state’s outer coast and Puget Sound beaches in 2005 and 2006, he said. An average of six gray whales wash ashore each year.

Christian Hill is a reporter for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5427 or at chill@theolympian.com.