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A gray whale was struck by a ferry in Washington State, and efforts to try to rescue the whale were underway.
According to a spokesman for the Washington State Ferry, the whale “was hit between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. by a ferry traveling from Seattle to Bainbridge Island,” q13Fox.com reported.
KIRO7 reported that the gray whale “breached about five feet off the bow and the ferry Wenatchee hit the whale.”
Here’s what you need to know:
The Whale Might Have Been Spotted Near a Pier
Kiro7 reports that the whale submerged after the ferry struck it, so it’s not clear whether it’s alive or dead.
However, the KOMO assignment desk reported that it’s believed the whale “was struck by the ferry Wenatchee as it left Colman Dock this evening.” The whale might be at Pier 66, so experts are headed there to try to find the whale.
The whale was spotted at the Pier 66 location, although it’s not clear whether it was the same whale that was hit by the ferry, according to Preston Phillips of KOMO News. Phillips also reported that the ferry captain didn’t see the whale in time to avoid hitting it.
King5’s Mark Wright wrote on Twitter that ferry passengers “saw the whale bleeding. Whale experts and wildlife officials are responding.”
You can read more about Washington State Ferries here. MyNorthwest reported that the Coast Guard was called in after the whale was struck.
What is a gray whale? According to National Geographic, the gray whale “is one of the animal kingdom’s great migrators. Traveling in groups called pods, some of these giants swim 12,430 miles round-trip from their summer home in Alaskan waters to the warmer waters off the Mexican coast. The whales winter and breed in the shallow southern waters and balmier climate. Other gray whales live in the seas near Korea.”
Gray whales surface when they need to breathe, giving people a chance to see them, especially on the American west coast, National Geographic reported.
Gray whales have interested humans for a long time. “Gray whales were the attraction on the world’s first ever whale watching trips in the 1950s and today still attract thousands of visitors as they migrate up the west coast of North America each spring,” according to US.Whales.org.