Dead gray whale found on island is Alaska’s third this year

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A third gray whale has been found dead in Alaska.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says a gray whale was spotted Tuesday on Kodiak Island.

Carcasses also were found this spring near Cordova and south of Anchorage.

NOAA in release says the dead whale on Kodiak was along a rocky shore below a steep cliff and inaccessible for a necropsy.

The agency says it’s not unusual to have two or three gray whale strandings by late May in Alaska.

However, they’re part of an unusually high number of gray whale deaths along the West Coast.

At least 60 dead gray whales have been found dead from Mexico to Alaska.

Gray whales make migrations of up to 10,000 miles (16,100 kilometres) round trip to summer feeding grounds in the Arctic.