Scientists Say Most Whale Strikes Go Undocumented NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—Scientists, researchers, and environmentalists have long grappled with how best to analyze the occurrence of vessel strikes that kill or injure endangered whales and other marine mammals along the feeding ground waterways of the California coast. In Huntington Beach, a 63-foot fin whale washed onto California shores on May 19, after it was struck by an Australian Navy ship on its way to San Diego. Such occurrences are the only way researchers know when an animal has died. That vessel strike left two animals dead, including the one towed to sea in San Diego, which later washed up on Bolsa Chica State Beach, and a calf, which was buried on land.