A dead grey whale washed ashore in San Francisco on Monday, the ninth dead whale found in the Bay Area in the last two months.

The Marine Mammal Centre confirmed to NBC Bay Area that it performed a necropsy, or animal autopsy, on the whale on Tuesday.

The necropsy showed that the whale died from blunt force trauma, likely from striking a ship.

The Marine Mammal Centre's research shows that three of the whales it’s found have died as a result of ship strikes, with the most recent whale likely included.

Four others died from malnutrition. The cause of death of the eighth whale washed ashore in the Bay Area is unknown.

Dr Pádraig J Duignan, the chief research pathologist at the Marine Mammal Centre, led the research team during Tuesday’s necropsy. He told CBS that the number of whales dying from malnutrition is due to a lack of food in the Arctic, leaving whales migrating during the fall in bad shape.

“Fifty per cent of the population was judged to be below normal body condition,” Dr Duignan said, explaining that the malnourishment continued from fall into winter. “That’s a lot of time and a lot of energy without any additional food.”

The first two grey whales found dead this year were calves, who are less adept at surviving with little to eat.

Last year, more whales died from being struck by ships off the coast of California than ever before since the National Marine Fisheries Service began tracking ship strikes in 1982.

Tragic photos show beached whales Show all 15 1 /15 Tragic photos show beached whales Tragic photos show beached whales A dead sperm whale lies on Hunstanton beach in Norfolk on 5 February 2016 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Volunteers pour buckets of water over the 80 remaining live pilot whales found stranded on remote Ocean Beach on New Zealand's southern-most Stewart island, 8 January 2003 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Contractors clear away the body of one of the dead 48ft sperm whales that were washed-up on a beach near Gibraltar Point in Skegness, Lincolnshire in 2016 PA Tragic photos show beached whales People pass by a beached whale at the Pointe de la Torche, near Brest in France on 29 November 2011 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales A woman touches the tail of a large whale carcass on Wattamola Beach at the Royal National Park in Sydney on 25 September 2018 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Beached humpback whale in California, 2015 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Dead long fin pilot whales at Hamelin Bay on Australia's west coast on 23 March 2009 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales A 36ft sperm whale lies dead on the beach at Sutton Bridge, in The Wash, off the Lincolnshire coast, where it became stranded in 2004 PA Tragic photos show beached whales A female fin whale opens its mouth as it lies stranded and alive on the beach at Carlyon Bay, Cornwall on 13 August 2012 Getty Tragic photos show beached whales The lower jaw of a dead sperm whale that stranded itself on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on 5 February 2016 Getty Tragic photos show beached whales One of the five sperm whales that were found washed ashore on beaches near Skegness, Lincolnshire over the weekend on 25 January 2016 Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Employees at work to skin the remains of a beached 60ft whale on 25 January 2013 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Two long-finned pilot whales are stranded on a beach in the northern French city of Calais on 2 November 2015 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales A sperm whale lies dead after becoming stranded on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on 5 February 2016 Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Crowds gather as a sperm whale lies dead after becoming stranded on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on 5 February 2016 Getty

A local news station says the San Francisco Bay Area normally sees only 1-2 dead whales per year, making this year’s number of deaths alarming.