A 39-foot female gray whale was found floating in the surf off Limantour Beach on Saturday, the first whale to wash ashore in the Bay Area this year. A team from the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences performed a partial necropsy at low tide on Saturday, with plans to return this week to collect more samples. But evidence so far points to death from malnutrition, said Dr. Padraig Duignan, director of pathology at the Marine Mammal Center. The whale was emaciated, and its skin and tissues were fresh, signifying it died within a day or so of the necropsy. It showed no evidence of trauma due to a ship strike. Gray whales are among the most frequently sighted whales in California, and their numbers have risen since the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1971. Public interest and pressure for whale protections have helped the species bounce back from a mere 2,500 individuals to somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 animals today. Yet elevated gray whale strandings have occurred along the West Coast, from Mexico through Alaska, since 2019. In 2021, 19 gray whales were found dead on the California coast—an unusual mortality event that echoed a similar event in 1999. Researchers are investigating possible links between the events and ocean and ecosystem disturbances. Gray whales, frequently spotted during their southern migration in winter and again in April and May on their northern journey, make the longest yearly migration of any whale, at roughly 11,000 miles. The Marine Mammal Center asks the public to report sightings of stranded whales through its hotline, (415) 289.7335, or its website, www.marinmammalcenter.org.