On the road

Three incidents caught my attention yesterday, June 3, all having to do with dead or dying sea creatures. 

The first was a personal encounter. I was taking a stroll down the Seaside part of the Monterey Bay Recreation Trail, when I spotted what appeared to be the carcass of a sea animal. I know from reading about it that when this happens, people are not supposed to touch or even approach it but instead report the sighting to concerned agencies.  

Various groups cater to stranded sea otters and sea lions which abound in the Monterey Bay area. I chose to send photos along with the location and time at which I found it to Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML), which had a ready email address. MLML is an academic unit under the San Jose State University and is located at the nearby town of Moss Landing. I did not know exactly what this marine mammal was, but my guess was that it could be a sea lion l. I have yet to hear from the MLML. 

I remember taking a photo back in November 2025 along Del Monte Beach in Monterey. Of what, I do not know, but it was surely a marine mammal. Sea and wind conditions were so bad that sand had piled up along the shore and people were discouraged from venturing into the water. I thought then the marine animal may have been washed ashore by the rough seas.

The second incident was the sighting of a whale carcass off Lovers’ Point Beach in Pacific Grove. “Out of an abundance of caution, Lover’s Point Beach is temporarily closed until further notice,” The Pacific Grove Police Department said in its Facebook post. 

“We are aware of the deceased whale and due to the circumstances, it could attract other predators to the area. This decision was made to help protect the health and safety of our community while conditions are assessed.” 

The Monterey County Now carried a photo of the whale carcass, and quoted an announcement from Pacific Grove city officials saying, “”Marine mammal carcasses can attract sharks, particularly larger predatory species, which is the primary concern prompting this precautionary measure.”  

Lovers’ Point Beach is a popular destination, but also the site of shark attacks. The swimmer Erica Foxwas reported missing after a group swim at Lovers’ Point last December, her remains later found near Santa Cruz, the apparent victim of a shark attack.

The third incident is one that happened on the other side of the Pacific. A whale more than 4 meters long got stranded in the city of Calapan in Oriental Mindoro, south of Luzon in the Philippines. Calapan faces Tayabas Bay and the Verde Island Passage. 

The whale, scientific name pseudorca crassidens, also known as false killer whale, showed signs of trauma wounds and exhaustion, according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), an agency under the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture. Rescuers from BFAR at the regional office Mimaropa came to the aid of the whale and are trying to revive it. BFAR-Mimaropa reported that it was the sixth time this whale was stranded in Calapan. 

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, false killer whales are “social animals found globally in all tropical and subtropical oceans and generally in deep offshore waters.” They apparently jump out of the water like dolphins.  NOAA said “fishery interactions are one of the main threats facing this species.”

I came to know about the Mindoro incident from the Facebook group Dolphin Spotted PH which I was recently invited to join. Page member Robert Ray Medrano shared the BFAR announcement. 

People living near or visiting coastal areas share the habitat with sea animals, who also struggle for survival and wrestle with predators, both human and marine. Thankfully, groups such as the MLML and the Monterey Bay Aquarium help educate the public about the inhabitants of our vast and complex marine environment. Government groups like BFAR patrol the waters to protect marine species, although theirs is a whale of a task, pardon the pun, given the Philippines’ archipelagic nature and long coastline. 

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