Troubling Trend Continues: Whale Killed by Ship Strike in NoCal

  Two more blue whales have been struck and killed by commercial ships traversing California's busy shipping lanes, bringing to five the number of whales known to have been killed in such a brutal manner during recent months.

The latest discovery was made Monday, when a 70-foot female blue whale washed ashore in Mendocino County with deep gashes caused by a collision with an ocean survey vessel, said Joe Cordero of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Last week another blue whale washed up in Monterey County, also having been hit by a ship.
In April, a dead 60-foot fin whale discovered in the Port of Los Angeles was found to have died after being hit by a 900-foot container ship.

Veterinarians found bruising, broken shoulder blades, shattered ribs and evidence of organ damage during a brief necropsy of the whale, which was found on the ship's bow April 11. 
The whale was hit by the container ship OOCL Japan somewhere between the Santa Barbara Channel and San Pedro Bay, said Cordero, a wildlife biologist.

In February, another fin whale washed up on a beach in San Diego County after being struck by a ship near San Clemente Island, Cordero said.
And in October '08, a 48-foot female fin was dragged into the Port of Long Beach on the bow of a container ship - again struck in the Santa Barbara Channel.

An internationally endangered species, fin whales are the world's second-largest mammals behind blue whales. The fin whales frequent waters around San Clemente Island, where food is abundant, but they can be found anywhere off the West Coast. 
Six blue whales, the world's largest creatures, have been killed by ship strike since October 2007.
In June 2008, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the federal government in response to the string of earlier deaths, saying the Coast Guard violated the federal Endangered Species Act by failing to adequately protect whales from ship traffic, as required under federal law.

The case is pending.