Advertisement Home // NPR News An unusually high number of whales are washing up on U.S. beaches February 05, 2023 Bill Chappell Twitter facebook Email People look at a dead gray whale at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, Calif., in May 2019, a year when 122 gray whales died in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last year, 47 of the whales died. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)