News Animals

For gray whales, San Francisco Bay is becoming a deadly pit stop

Nearly 1 in 5 whales that enter the bay don’t make it out

A gray whale surfaces letting us see its eye and mouth.

A gray whale takes a peek above water. The whales usually migrate from the Arctic to Mexico and back without stopping. For the past few years, they’ve been stopping in the San Francisco Bay.

StaciaSilver/iStock/Getty Images Plus

By Gennaro Tomma

Spotting a gray whale in San Francisco Bay can be thrilling, but researchers now know it can be bad news for the marine mammals.