Kodiak biologists examining the carcass of a young gray whale that recently washed ashore say it was likely attacked by killer whales.
The whale's corpse washed up in late May near Surfer's Beach, just a few minutes walk from the southern end of Kodiak's road system.
The Sun'aq Tribe's natural resources director, Matt Van Daele, said he and another biologist were the first to report it while on a survey looking for live whales at Pasagshak Point. Van Daele said it was likely killed in the ocean and was dead for about a week before it was spotted.
"This guy is a subadult male gray whale, about 30 feet long, but is very, very likely an orca mortality," he said. "The lower jaw has been exposed, the tongue is missing, and all of the blubber and skin and flesh has actually been cleansed off his face, and those are all hallmarks of an orca mortality."
Kodiak has a group of transient killer whales that primarily hunt other mammals, known as the Kodiak Killers. Van Daele said they're likely suspects, but it's impossible to know for sure.
Gray whale populations along North America's coast faced an unusual mortality event from 2019 to 2023, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA's investigative team concluded ecosystem changes in feeding areas in and near the Arctic was what led to the animals both starving and having decreasing birth rates.
Van Daele expects to see a lot of dead whales this year, too.
"We're seeing increased mortalities already between Mexico and California," he said. "Some have been malnourished, somehow been hit by ships, so maybe they just didn't have the energy to get out of the way of a vessel."
This dead whale is the fourth to be reported around the Kodiak Archipelago this year, and the seventh for Alaska as a whole.
Van Daele said this gray whale had a decent amount of blubber from the sample they took, but the Tribe isn't planning a full necropsy. Much of the body is already rotten, and they want to save resources to find a better subject to dissect.
"If we had a good supply cache, we would have done it," Van Daele said. "But we're just kind of wait and see because we're probably going to get a fresher one that shows up, and especially one that is emaciated – those are the obese we really want to necropsy just to see if there's underlying factors behind the malnutrition that's got disease load or anything like that."
Other filter-feeding whales like a humpback and a fin whale washed up near the island in recent years were malnourished and emaciated. Found animals can be reported to the marine mammal stranding hotline by calling 1 (877) 925-7773.
For now, the Tribe's team will keep surveying for whales in the area, too.
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