From her boat in Moss Landing, Sarah Graham has seen several gray whales in Monterey Bay this month. But sightings of this majestic animal so late in the migration season are not normal—nor is anything else about this year.
“There are not as many large groups of whales coming through the Monterey Bay, and we are seeing a lot of smaller, skinnier animals,” says Graham, who serves as West Coast Director at the California Gray Whale Coalition.
The gray whale routinely migrates 12,000 miles a year—southward to breed in the warm lagoons of Baja California and northward to feed in Arctic waters. There, it finds its number one food source, amphipods—tiny crustaceans that feed off algae on the bottom of the arctic ice shelf.
The 6,000-mile northern migration typically ends in May, says Graham, with the mothers and calves bringing up the rear. Although gray whales are a welcome presence in the bay, their June occupation is a break from their ancient migration path and suggests the species is struggling to survive.
“We are still seeing a lot of animals in the area feeding on krill,” says Graham. “For them to stop their migration for krill is a sign of starvation.”
“Gray whales don’t usually feed during migration,” says Kenny Manzoni of Adventure Rib Rides in San Diego. Manzoni, who started whale watching in Santa Cruz 25 years ago, has witnessed a similar influx in emaciated gray whales feeding in the San Diego Bay. “We had one this year that hung out for two weeks and then died,” he says. Since they are bottom feeders, gray whales feeding on the sediment in industrial areas are consuming much lower quality of food—and trash. “Towels, sweat pants and golf balls are being found in the stomachs of whales turning up dead,” he says.
A newly released report on gray whale breeding areas is backing up with numbers what Graham and others have observed anecdotally. Dr. Jorge Urban of the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California has made annual boat surveys of cow-calf pairs and individual gray whales in Baja California since 1978. His new report shows the sharpest decline in the region’s gray whale population in 15 years.
Laguna Ojo de Liebre, historically the most abundant breeding ground for gray whales, saw only 183 mother-calf pairs this year, a steep decline from the 800-plus pairs reported in 2004-2006. Laguna San Ignacio has also seen a sharp drop, from its peak of 137 mother-calf pairs in 1984 to only 20 documented in 2010.
The data from Baja coincides with evidence up and down the West Coast that the gray whale is struggling. Manzoni, who typically counts around 100 calves off the coast of San Diego, counted only six this year.
The Baja report comes at a time of environmentalist outrage at the National Marine Fisheries Service for its refusal to insist on a moratorium on Russian whalers’ killing of 140 gray whales a year, and its inaction in re-listing the gray whale on the federal list of endangered species.
A draft proposal submitted to the International Whaling Commission in Morocco, which started its meeting on June 21, extends the quota for the next 10 years. The IWC relies on scientific advice from the NMFS to make its decision. It is unclear if Dr. Urban’s report will be enough to reverse the quota extension.
