Last week, at the Noyo Center Marine Field Station, Sarah Grimes, Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator provided a report to approximately 50 guests of what and who washed ashore in 2025. This marks the 11th year that the Center has been providing this information to the public.
Grimes is transporting cleaned specimens to the Noyo Center’s bone lab. These specimens provide valuable information about the marine life along the north coast. (Contributed)Grimes noted that all marine mammal stranding activities were conducted under authorization by the National Marine Fisheries Service through a Stranding Agreement issued to the California Academy of Sciences.
Every year I like to do this presentation review of what’s happened through the year,” she began. “Dealing with deceased animals can be tough, but what we do is go the next step- be detectives- and figure out as best we can what happened to the animal. It helps to make the sad part easier.”
Grimes’ report covered the area from Gualala to Westport, but she also included information on animals that washed up in the Bay Area. “We work very closely with the California Academy of Sciences. They are part of our extended family, as well as people in Sonoma County, who also respond. The West Coast Stranding Network is one big stretch of coastline, from Alaska to Baja, and the database created from our collective input tells the whole story.” The work of locating, identifying and determining the fate of animals washed ashore is done largely by a dedicated team of volunteers.
Grimes noted that 2025 had a very different profile from 2024 and years prior. “We had only 65 animals this year- 49 of which were sea lions. Less dead animals is always a good thing, but we’re only one part of the larger coastal story.” She noted that a variety of animals can potentially wash up- from pyrosomes- strange, pink rubbery creatures that float in colonies, to cetaceans, porpoises, eared seals- which include the California Sea Lion, Steller Sea Lion, Guadalupe Fur Seal and the Northern Fur Seal, to the true seals, which include the Pacific Harbor Seal and the Elephant Seal. “Only 11 Harbor Seals washed up this year,” she noted, “which is down from years past.”
This was a big year for deaths of California Sea Lions attributed to Leptospirosis- a disease that affects the kidneys. “This was happening up and down the coast,” Grimes noted. “We were receiving one to two calls per day, particularly affecting younger Sea Lions, and later in the season we had a few older Sea Lions with the same disease.” The teams recorded mostly males with the disease.
Interns and volunteers collected a large Sea Lion near Jefferson Way. “They collected the skull. You could see the Leptospirosis in the kidneys. It had an enlarged heart, and to add insult to injury, it had a really horrible diseased tooth. It was a very sick animal. In this case, it was probably better that he passed on.”
“A lot of what we do is determine species and gender, sometimes by shape of the teeth, Grimes continued. “Harbor Seals have mountainous teeth. It’s often difficult to tell species just by the coat. With gender, it’s not always easy. Sometimes the animals are very scavenged.” Male pinnipeds have a penis bone called a baculum. “When we find one, it goes into the collection with the animal. An animal without a baculum may be a female or it may have been scavenged.”
Fur on the fore flippers can help determine species. “The Guadalupe Fur Seal has fur right to tip of flipper, and the Northern Fur Seal’s fur goes about halfway down. We saw a few Fur Seals on our Noyo pelagic trips. I love it when I see only live Fur Seals,” she smiled.
A Juvenile Humpback Whale- an endangered species- was collected in October. “It was the second one of the year found on Manchester Beach- a young male. Our team and folks from the California Academy of Sciences hiked a few miles to get to that whale.”
A 3-day investigation yielded some interesting findings. “You don’t always figure out what happens to an animal, but this one had a story.” Grimes showed some photos of the discovery and subsequent examination of the whale. “There’s a very large wound near the eye, wounds on the tail and smaller, crescent-shaped wounds- a lot of bite wounds. Part of the tongue was missing. The question was: did it get bit, and is that why it died? That’s where we get into trying to figure out what happened.”
The team peeled the blubber layer back to expose muscle underneath. “It was brown, and had no integrity. Something hit it hard. We could see three big puncture wounds in a row.” The appearance of the bite wounds, the measurements, the missing tongue and the spacing of wounds all pointed to an attack by a Killer Whale.
“Why do Killer Whales eat the tongue? They don’t eat the whole whale. They eat the choice bits,” Grimes continued. “In Alaska, they’ll move a carcass into a protected bay to tuck away for later. To me, a death by Killer Whale kill is a lot easier to take than a boat strike. Things are as they should be, in some sense. Yet, they are incredibly beautiful creatures, and it was hard not to cry.”
Sue Pemberton is a Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for the California Academy of Sciences. “Sue trained me. She is a next-level detective,” Grimes notes. Pemberton joined the meeting via Zoom, discussing the challenges she faced when land managers denied the Academy team permission to do a necropsy on a Pacific Grey Whale.
“The whale stranded during the mass casualty event that was taking place in San Francisco Bay. Because of its proximity to a hotel, we weren’t able to do a full examination, but the story was still there, so we set out to examine external areas as much as we could. Three things on this whale told us exactly what happened. There were telltale injuries consistent with Orca predation. Sloughed off skin revealed a half-circle shaped bruise on the abdomen- a classic pummel-punch wound from orca’s nose. Killer whales pummel animals to death. I started removing skin, looking for that injury. Another injury included the tip of tongue removed. We had to distinguish bite holes from shark scavenging. There were rake marks on the fluke and blowhole, all indicative of an Orca strike. Even though we were not able to do a full necropsy, we got the answer of how it died,” Pemberton explained.
“Persistence and learning go together, and are part of the importance of doing this work,” said Grimes, noting the San Francisco team responded to 20 grey whales this past year. “There were almost none up here.” Many the whales examined bore evidence of blunt-force injuries, which may be indicative of a ship-strike. “We’re peeling back, looking, investigating and doing next- level observation.”
Another interesting event occurred when the protecting of one species interfered with the investigation of another. In May, a Risso’s Dolphin was located in the midst of the Snowy Plover nesting area. “Initially, we were not able to get a permit to do work in that area, because the activity could risk the lives of the 2,000 plovers nesting on our coast. We collected measurements but no parts. A month later, we got permission to collect the skull. Our team carried a 70-pound dolphin head for two miles to the car, across the dunes. The animal was about 10 feet long. We have no idea why it died. They are stunning animals.”
Grimes lauds the work of two interns- Zane Colfax and Charles, who have become invaluable members of the Noyo Center Team. Colfax- another of the legendary Anderson Valley family who made homeschooling a priority has been accepted to his first-choice college- Carleton College in Minnesota. Following attendance at Mendocino College, Charles is a student at UC Davis. Both are majoring in Environmental Science.
“It took handling lots of urchin poop for these young men to become who they are today,” Grimes laughs. “They collected a humpback whale that had died offshore in tidepools. There was no way to get to it the first week. The Mendonoma Team responded and collected a rack of baleen. We wanted to see if we could get skin for DNA testing. These two interns scrambled in the rocks to reach the whale, which was a stinky, yucky mess. Getting that skin sample was incredibly important. They were definitely the heroes of the day. Not only are they willing to do anything; they are a joy to work with,” she continued.
A tagged Sea Lion was collected near Bowling Ball Beach. “He had been rescued in 2020 and had a facial injury back then. Once he was returned, he stayed out there lived his best life- a super-fascinating case.”
The team responded to more events: a collective response to a whale that landed near Sea Ranch. A discovery of a small “scrap” near Point Arena that will be tested for DNA and was probably a cetacean. A small Pacific White-Sided dolphin found on Manchester Beach via a Facebook photo. Eight suspected coyote kills- lower numbers than previous years.
Grimes recognized the work of Richard Millis, Field Station and Marine Mammal Collections Manager who along with running the evening’s slideshow takes a lead role in the collecting and processing of marine mammal specimens. “I couldn’t do this work without Richard.” She also thanked Village Vet in Mendocino for their radiographic support.
The work of the Noyo Center depends on volunteer beach surveyors, who scan the ocean and shoreline every two weeks. “They do incredible work,” says Grimes. “They look for turkey vultures and scan the horizon for floating whales or sea lions. Any time, day or night, please call us and we’ll get our team out asap.” The team also counts the number of bull kelp heads on shore. “We had 175 today.”
Though the center has been collecting data for over ten years, Grimes and the team are not ready to pronounce any specific changes affecting marine mammals. “Every year is different,” she notes.
Sue Pemberton notes that because of the warming sea surface temperature, fish migration patterns are changing, resulting in female sea lions taking longer foraging trips away from their pups. “We’re seeing smaller pups cumulatively.” Skulls of deceased animals are being collected, as she notes that sea lions are akin to the canaries in coal mines. “When things get rough, Guadalupe Fur Seals are the first to show signs.” Grimes notes, “If we continue to see more 60-degree ocean water, we’re all going to be in trouble.”
Sheila Semans, Noyo Center executive director notes the Bay Area is grappling with the increased number of whales feeding in the San Francisco Bay- multiplying the possibilities of whales being struck by boats. “No one wants to hit a whale or see one get caught in a crab pot. The whales are being documented through the work of the California Academy of Sciences so we can encourage people to slow down- to be aware there are whales in the Bay. Ferries are slowing down, but even spotters have a hard time seeing Gray Whales.” Many possible solutions are being discussed, including adding spotters to ferries, creating more eco-tourism opportunities or utilizing technology. She stresses that not every blunt force trauma event is caused by a ship strike. “It’s difficult to confirm ship strikes, so we must be careful about not pointing fingers.”
When mammals are collected, they go through a rigorous and quite odiferous process of removing the flesh. “The finished specimens are museum quality, and will be housed at the Cal Academy of Sciences forever,” says Grimes. “They are handled, prepped and documented properly. We’re so proud that Mendocino is represented in the collection.”For more information on the Noyo Center, visit www.noyocenter.org.
Hence then, the article about what washed ashore in 2025 was published today ( ) and is available on Ukiah Daily Journal ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( What washed ashore in 2025? )
Also on site :
- Skanska signs additional contract with existing client to build a data center in USA for USD 228M, about SEK 2.2 billion
- ‘No way out’: Telangana student dies in Germany after jumping from burning apartment on New Year’s Eve
- Switzerland fire latest: King Charles ‘heartbroken’ after 40 killed in ‘horrific’ Crans Montana bar disaster