A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science has found that at least 18% of Eastern North Pacific gray whales that entered San Francisco Bay between 2018 and 2025 have died, with blunt-force trauma consistent with ship strikes accounting for more than 40% of recorded carcasses. Researchers believe Arctic warming is disrupting the whales' traditional prey, pushing them to forage in the bay — a major commercial shipping corridor — in numbers not seen since the late 1990s, with the true mortality rate potentially as high as 50%. Conservation groups are calling for federal intervention, including mandatory vessel speed limits and formal consultation between the US Coast Guard and the National Marine Fisheries Service, warning that voluntary compliance measures have proven insufficient to protect a population already estimated at its lowest level since 1970.