12th dead whale washes up on San Francisco Bay Area beach this year

PACIFICA, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say the carcass of a gray whale discovered on Pacifica State Beach on Friday was the 12th dead whale to wash up on a San Francisco Bay Area beach this year.

The Marine Mammal Center says tissues from the whale confirms it was an approximately 47-foot adult male. Because the whale was in an advanced state of decomposition, scientists decided not to perform a necropsy to determine how it died.

The center says malnutrition, entanglement and trauma from ship strikes have been the most common causes of whale deaths in the Bay Area in recent years.