Gray Whale Delisted (1994)

One of the great success stories of conservation is the recovery of the eastern North Pacific Ocean population of the gray whale.  It has recovered to its pre-exploitation levels, allowing the U.S. to remove it from the endangered species list.

Gray whale (photo by Marine Mammal Commission)

            The gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) is a special kind of whale.  It is the only species in its family and is believed to be the most ancient of living whales.  It is a baleen whale, which refers to a series of keratin plates that hang from the roof of its mouth and allow it to filter small organisms in the ocean’s water.  Baleen whales swim through the water with their mouths open, collecting huge amounts of water and organisms; then they partially close their mouths, with the baleen plates forming a filter.  They push the water out, and the food organisms collect on the inside of the baleen plates.  The whales use their massive tongues to scrape the food from the baleen plates and swallow.

            What makes gray whales unique is that they feed on the bottom, rather than in the water column like other baleen whales (blue and right whales, for example).  They dig into the bottom substrate in shallow water, using their snouts or rolling along the bottom, sending clouds of sediment and organisms into the water.  The whales then take in huge mouthfuls of the mixture, spit out the water and muck, and eat what is left.  What fun!

Gray whale breaching; the gray whale has a distinctive appearance because barnacles and marine lice attach themselves to the head and tail of the animals (photo by Merrill Gosho, NOAA)

            Gray whales also make extensive migrations, perhaps the longest among all mammals.  Individuals spend the summer months grazing in the Bering and Chukchi Seas off Alaska and Russia.  As autumn arrives, they migrate south along the Canadian and U.S. Pacific coasts, down to Baja California in Mexico, where females give birth to a single calf.  The total migration is over 10,000 miles per year.

            Whalers nicknamed the species “devilfish” because the whales fought ferociously when harpooned or to protect their calves. Nonetheless, other characteristics made them a desirable target. Because gray whales travel close to shore on their migrations, they have always been vulnerable to hunting.  Individuals are large, but manageable (about 45 feet long and weighing 45 tons) for hunters, both aboriginal and commercial.    Consequently, the gray whale was hunted to near extinction by the 1860s, shrinking from a pre-industrial abundance of about 30,000 to a low of 2,000.

Whale watching is now the primary concern for whale conservation, as the popularity may impact whale behavior (photo by S. Rae)

            Conservation efforts stopped the exploitation.  The gray whales were (and are) protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium on commercial whaling (learn more about the IWC here), and listing as an Appendix I species by the Convention on International Trades in Endangered Species (CITES) (learn more about CITES here).  With little hunting mortality, the species has recovered well, growing at about 3% per year and now above 27,000 individuals.  Because this is considered within the normal pre-industrial population range, the eastern population is considered recovered and was removed from the U.S. endangered species list on June 16, 1994.

            The species has two distinct populations, however, and only one—the eastern—is de-listed and recovered.  The western population, which lives in coastal waters of Russia and northern Asia, is nearly extinct, with perhaps as few as 200 individuals remaining; it remains on the U.S. endangered species list.

            Today, the main threat to the gray whale is its popularity (tangling in fishing gear is also a worry).  Because animals travel close to shore and in shallow water, the species is the main target of whale watching excursions.  If whale-watching boats get too close to the whales, follow them for too long or chase them as they swim, the whales can become stressed and exhausted.  Consequently, the U.S. has issued rules for whale watching—prohibiting approach closer than 100 yards and restricting viewing of individuals to no more than 30 minutes.

            We all love whales, of course, but let’s be sure that we don’t love them to death.

References:

CITES.  Proposal from Japan to Transfer Gray Whales to Appendix II.  Available at:  https://www.cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/11/prop/15.pdf.  Accessed February 28, 2020.

NOAA Fisheries.  Gray Whale.  Available at:  https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/gray-whale.  Accessed February 28, 2020.

Save the Whales.  Gray Whale.  https://savethewhales.org/gray-whale/.  Accessed February 28, 2020.

This Month in Conservation

March 1
Yellowstone National Park Established (1872)
March 2
Theodore Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, Born (1904)
March 3
World Wildlife Day and Creation of CITES (1973)
March 3
Isle Royale National Park Authorized (1931)
March 4
Hot Springs National Park Established (1921)
March 5
Lynn Margulis, Evolutionary Biologist, Born (1938)
March 6
Martha Burton Williamson, Pioneering Malacologist, Born (1843)
March 7
Luther Burbank Born (1849)
March 8
Everett Horton Patents the Telescoping Fishing Rod (1887)
March 9
The Turbot War Begins (1995)
March 10
Cape Lookout National Seashore Established (1966)
March 11
Save the Redwoods League Founded (1918)
March 12
Girl Scouts Founded (1912)
March 12
Charles Young, First African American National Park Superintendent, Born (1864)
March 13
National Elephant Day, Thailand
March 14
First National Wildlife Refuge Created (1903)
March 15
Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, Born (1874)
March 16
Amoco Cadiz Runs Aground (1978)
March 17
St. Patrick and Ireland’s Snakes
March 18
Nation’s First Wildlife Refuge Created (1870)
March 19
When the Swallows Return to Capistrano
March 20
“Our Common Future” Published (1987)
March 21
International Day of Forests
March 22
World Water Day
March 23
Sitka National Historical Park Created (1910)
March 24
John Wesley Powell, Western Explorer, Born (1834)
March 25
Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, Born (1914)
March 26
Marjorie Harris Carr, Pioneering Florida Conservationist, Born (1915)
March 26
Kruger National Park Established (1898)
March 27
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Begun (1975)
March 28
Joseph Bazalgette, London’s Sewer King, Born (1819)
March 29
Niagara Falls Stops Flowing (1848)
March 30
The United States Buys Alaska (1867)
March 31
Al Gore, Environmental Activist and U.S. Vice President, Born (1948)
January February March April May June July August September October November December