SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The number of gray whales found dead in the San Francisco Bay this year doubled over the weekend, The Marine Mammal Center confirmed on Monday. There have now been four confirmed strandings in the last two weeks of March. On Saturday, a dead adult female gray whale was repor ted floating off Tiburon near the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, TMMC said. Experts with the center and the California Academy of Sciences relocated the whale on Sunday afternoon in the Golden Gate Strait while aboard a research vessel and took blubber samples. “Experts noted the animal’s skin was in good condition with overall minimal body decomposition,” TMMC wrote. The cause of death is still undetermined as of Monday. A gray whale was found dead in the San Francisco Bay on March 28, 2026. Researchers with the California Academy of Sciences and The Marine Mammal Center collected samples the following afternoon. (Photo: Josie Slaathaug/California Academy of Sciences, NOAA Permit #26532) Another dead gray whale was reported by the U.S. Coast Guard to be floating near Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor. Researchers on Sunday were unable to relocate the whale for further examination. A dead male gray whale that was discovered last week remains wedged at the Phillips 66 Refinery in Rodeo, according to the center. Scientists have been unable to access the whale to perform a necropsy, or animal autopsy. More whales are dying inside San Francisco Bay: What experts are warning On March 17, a 42-foot-long adult female gray whale was found dead near the Golden Gate Bridge with injuries consistent with a vessel strike. Twenty-one gray whales were found dead in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2025, the most in 25 years. ...read more read less