NOAA investigates tampering with dead gray whale at Oak Harbor beach

Beachgoers on Whidbey Island are being told to stay at least 100 feet away from the dead gray whale at West Beach County Park after NOAA Fisheries opened an enforcement investigation into alleged tampering with the carcass.

The whale washed ashore in Oak Harbor as a 39-foot male gray whale, and Island County said NOAA determined the best course was to let it decompose naturally where it landed. County officials said that approach protects public safety and allows the carcass to remain part of the ecosystem, where it can provide sustenance for thousands of animals.

The investigation escalated after Orca Network stranding response coordinator Garry Heinrich arrived on the morning of May 15 to prepare for a necropsy and instead found initials carved into the whale’s flesh, reported as AW + KO. A longtime Orca Network volunteer later saw a man and woman allegedly trying to remove the baleen, the whale’s filtering system, with a saw around 1 p.m. May 16. The volunteer recorded the vehicle’s license plate and passed it to Heinrich, who relayed it to Oak Harbor police, state park officials and NOAA Fisheries enforcement.

Disturbing a dead whale without a permit can carry criminal penalties under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, including fines and jail time, and civil penalties can also be substantial. One local report said NOAA’s civil penalty figure for the alleged conduct was about $36,498, with criminal penalties including up to one year in prison and criminal fines. NOAA says the federal law, enacted Oct. 21, 1972, is intended to protect whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions.

The Oak Harbor case landed amid an unusually heavy gray whale mortality pattern in Washington. Island County said the dead whale marked the 19th gray whale found dead in the state this year, and officials said many of the deaths have been linked to starvation or boat strikes. Cascadia Research Collective said that by April 13 it had already documented six dead gray whales in Washington since April 1, bringing the total to nine at that point, well above the state’s normal annual average of five.

Scientists have tied the broader decline to a stressed eastern North Pacific population. NOAA Fisheries estimated the gray whale population at about 13,000 in 2025, the lowest since the 1970s, and said only about 85 calves migrated past Central California that winter. Against that backdrop, officials say the carcass at West Beach should be left alone so scientists can study it and the remains can return naturally to the shoreline.