A whale in the bay off Emeryville, Calif., on April 7, 2025, is likely a juvenile minke whale. The whale became stranded on an offshore mudflat and had to be euthanized on April 8, 2025. Minke whale sightings are rare in the bay, but not unprecedented. If confirmed to be a minke whale, this would be the fifth documented sighting in the past 16 years according to researchers. (Bill Keener/The Marine Mammal Center via Bay City News)

DESPITE FIREFIGHTERS extending wood planks into the San Francisco Bay for rescuers to reach a minke whale stranded on a mudflat just off Emeryville, experts from the Marine Mammal Center decided the whale had to be euthanized. 

The juvenile whale was first spotted April 2 in apparent good health in the same area, experts with the Cetacean Conservation Biology Team at the Marine Mammal Center said. 

The whale — only the fifth documented minke whale sighting in the bay in the past 16 years — was seen about 2 p.m. Monday before the incoming tide helped it move to a deeper part of the bay at about 4:30 p.m., according to Marine Mammal Center officials.  

But it got stuck again when the tide came back in Tuesday. Wildlife officials couldn’t do much, as the area wasn’t deep enough for boats and inaccessible on foot because of the dangerously thick mud. 

Giancarlo Rulli, spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center, said Alameda County firefighters laid wooden planks over the mud Tuesday. By then, the whale was only about 20 feet offshore and completely out of the water and stuck in mud. 

Rulli said the 20-feet-long whale was disoriented and suffering from an extreme sunburn on its back from being stranded and out of water so long. With high tide still hours away, Marine Mammal Center veterinarians made a difficult choice. 

“It was clear it was suffering and it was obviously in poor condition,” Rulli said. “They couldn’t wait for high tide.” 

Rulli said a necropsy was done on the whale to see what caused the repeated strandings and disorientation. It’s possible the whale suffered from domoic acid poisoning, a potent neurotoxin found in algae that is being blamed for dozens of sick and dead mammals on California beaches. 

Minke whale sightings are rare in the bay, but not unprecedented. If was the fifth documented sighting in the bay over the past 16 years according to researchers. (Josie Slaathaug/The Marine Mammal Center via Bay City News)

There have been reports of sea lions with the condition attacking humans in Southern California. The condition comes from a particular algae bloom that has appeared four straight years now off the California coast 

Many of the animals have symptoms including seizures, lethargy, disorientation and, in the sea lion cases, aggression. 

Rulli said the institute won’t have tests results for weeks. Preliminary results were inconclusive. The whale’s body will be put back in the water to naturally decompose. 

This is the fourth dead whale found in the Bay Area this year. An emaciated “subadult” female gray whale was found dead near Alcatraz on April 1. Another gray whale was found the next day east of Angel Island State Park and a third gray whale was found Friday, just off Fort Point Rock Beach close to the San Francisco end of the Golden Gate Bridge.