Dead whale washes up at Fremont wildlife refuge

On Thursday, authorities said that a dead whale that was discovered washed ashore this week along a southern Alameda County wildlife area is the second deceased whale found in 2015 in bay waters.

Because the carcass was located in an area that was not easily accessible, Marine Mammal Center employees were initially waiting for tide conditions in the area to improve before accessing the carcass, Marine Mammal Center spokeswoman Laura Sherr said.

The whale, about 25 feet long, was first spotted floating near the San Mateo Bridge over the weekend and eventually was spotted Tuesday at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, said U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spokesman Doug Cordell. A biologist with the agency went to the area early Thursday morning, and the Marine Mammal Center was scheduled to perform a necropsy Thursday afternoon, he said.

Spokeswoman Carolyn Jones said the carcass washed ashore on a rocky beach about 200 yards south of the Alameda Creek Channel, which is just west of Coyote Hills Regional Park. The juvenile whale is badly decomposed.

A lifeless whale was found beached along the San Francisco Bay’s shore close to Fremont and the Dumbarton Bridge this week.

Only one other whale has been found in the San Francisco Bay itself within the previous year.