Whale Body Parts Found Oregon Coast, Human Cause. Two Whales Strand Washington Coast

Published 04/21/25 at 12:01 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Warrenton, Oregon) – It's starting read a bit like a true crime piece. Two body parts of whales have washed up on the Oregon coast in recent weeks – with the latest Saturday – and a couple of large deceased whales have rolled up onto the Washington coast. (Photos courtesy Sara Eads)

The latter situation of whale carcasses showing up is not especially new, but having whale body parts show up is. In fact, one researcher called it “weird.”

Part of a whale fluke was found Saturyda (April 19) at Fort Stevens. Sara Eads reported to authorities – including the Oregon Coast Killer Whale Monitoring Program – she had found a “large piece of black animal tissue.”

The program's Josh McInnes said Eads sent him photographs. McInnes is also a researcher from the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Marine Mammal Research Unit and with the University of British Columbia.

“I have been able to confirm that it is part of the fluke (tail region) of a killer whale,” McInnes said. “The fluke section was 30 inches by 20 inches and several inches thick. Weighed at least 25-30 lbs.”

McInnes said on social the cut looked rather clean, like a propeller strike from a ship. He also noted how rare this was to find an orca part lying on the beach.

Seaside Aquarium's Keith Chandler and Tiffany Boothe were dispatched to pick up the fluke for further testing. Oregon State University's Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network (OMMSN) along with Portland State University scientists are now involved, and testing will likely be done by OSU staff.

Chandler told Oregon Coast Beach Connection it looked like human interaction was involved in some way.

“It was sliced and cut pretty clean by something,” Chandler said.

The orca body part had been in the ocean for awhile, he said.

“It wasn't fresh,” he said. “It was pretty rotten.”

Jim Rice, head of the OMMSN, said he had been alerted to another whale body part near Newport a few weeks ago.

“We actually found the left lobe of a whale fluke near Newport a few weeks ago,” Rice told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “I’m still awaiting the results of the DNA test to determine the species of whale it came from. I don’t think it was from a killer whale.”

Human interaction is also suspected here – but in a way that poses all kinds of federal law questions.

“It looked like it had been cut off by someone using a knife,” Rice said.

Federal law prohibits the collection of any part of a marine mammal, dead or alive. There was a case of this in Cannon Beach around 2007, where a man cut part of a dead whale off and was fined by the feds.

Also see Cue Micheal Jackson: 'Zombie' Whales of Oregon Coast History 

“This includes, but is not limited to, the collection of any dead or injured marine mammal, or any part thereof,” the law reads.

Other whale carcasses have washed up on the Washington coast recently. A gray whale rolled up near Ocean Shores in early April, showing signs of a ship strike. Chandler said another has washed around Seaview, Washington and the aquarium crew will be investigating that one on Monday.

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