San Francisco, May 24 (IANS): The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and local authorities were working to tow away a dead gray whale that washed up on the Pacifica State Beach shore of Northern California, officials said.

According to authorities, this is the 12th dead whale to wash up on a San Francisco Bay Area beach this year, Xinhua news agency reported.

Officials at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito said on Sunday that they received the report of a dead whale at Pacifica State Beach on May 21.

The California Academy of Sciences collected tissue samples on May 22 and confirmed the whale was an approximately 47-foot adult male.

The cause of death is unknown, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday.

So far in 2021, 10 gray whales, one pygmy sperm whale, and one fin whale have been reported dead on San Francisco Bay Area shores, according to the California Academy of Sciences.

Necropsies revealed that two died of a ship strike and two others were suspected to have died of ship strikes.

Eight of the deaths were from undetermined causes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.