A dead gray whale was spotted in the waters off the Ferry Building in the San Francisco Bay this afternoon, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.
The Coast Guard was notified of the female whale at about 1 p.m., Lt. j.g. Jeremy Pichette said.
He said the Coast Guard was called out to assist Marine Mammal Center researchers in recovering the whale. Researchers had planned to tow the whale to a beach in Richmond to conduct a necropsy, however the carcass washed ashore on the south side of Angel Island at about 5:30 p.m., Pichette said.
He said the Coast Guard and the Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center will reevaluate the situation in the morning.
The carcass did not pose a navigational hazard this afternoon, Pichette said.
On April 20, a juvenile male gray whale was found dead between Fort Mason and Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay.
