More gray whales wash up dead, but is this different than orca crisis?
Jun 4, 2019, 10:40 AM
More gray whales washed up dead on Puget Sound shores over the weekend. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Two gray whales washed ashore over the weekend, bringing the total to 27 dead found in Washington this year. But is this problem similar to what the region has seen with its struggling orcas? One expert claims it’s not.
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John Calambokidis with Cascadia Research Collective said a team went to Westport to examine a gray whale that came ashore Sunday. From there, the team was able to determine a common thread in a long line of gray whales that have shown up dead this year.
“I think the main findings have been consistent with the past that the animals were emaciated and in poor nutritional condition,” Calambokidis told KIRO Radio.
While those conditions are similar to struggles the local orca population has seen, the main difference between gray whales and orcas is that the former’s population is healthy.
Recent estimates claim that there are roughly 27,000 gray whales in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Conversely, Puget Sound’s orca population hovered around 75 as of January 2019, and has dwindled for decades.
So, why are gray whales dying off and starving? Calambokidis posits that they may have simply outgrown their food supply.
“The population looks like it fully recovered from commercial whaling, and so is getting maybe close to or at the limits of the food supply, where it is probably more vulnerable and affected,” he said.
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A second gray whale was found near Port Ludlow. More than 70 whales have been found dead so far this year on the coasts of Washington, California, Oregon, and Alaska, the most since 2000.
KIRO Radio Staff contributed to this report
