It’s looking like another really bad year for gray whales. |
Thus far, 23 have stranded or died along the Washington coast — outpacing the strandings recorded during the historic 2019 die-off. |
The number has been more modest farther south. There have been 20 beachings and deaths in California, down from 30 as of this time last year, but up from 10 in 2024. And there have been eight in Oregon, which according to Michael Milstein, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is also a record. |
He said a total of 122 have stranded or died this year in coastal waters from Mexico to Canada. That isn’t the highest the agency has ever recorded, but it is similar to between 2019 and 2023, when the federal government called for an investigation of the dying animals. |
Early reports from the lagoons of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, where the leviathans winter every year — birthing, nursing their young, and relaxing in the warm shallow waters — forewarned scientists. Just eight mothers and calves were spotted in Laguna San Ignacio, down from a peak of 274 in 2015, and well below the 40 seen in 2019. |
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The numbers suggest a continuing decline in the population of Eastern Pacific Gray whales, a species that was once on the brink of extinction due to whaling, but made a remarkable comeback in the 1970s and 1980s. For years, the gray whale was the poster child for sound conservation policies, such as the Marine Mammal Protection Act, showing that when governments intervene, species can be brought back from the brink. |
But with the continued warming of the oceans, and the ensuing changes in food availability, animals such as gray whales — and as we saw, earlier this spring, sea birds — are dying. |
“The common finding is malnourishment, reflecting an issue with their food supply in the Arctic,” said John Calambokidis, a senior research biologist at the Cascadia Research Collective, a whale research organization in Washington. |
After wintering in Mexico, gray whales migrate 6,000 miles north along the Pacific Coast to summer feeding grounds in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic oceans. There, they find small crustaceans and amphipods in the muddy sediment of the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas before they head back south, where they won’t feed again until they migrate north the following year. |
But the reduction in sea ice and warming waters appears to be disrupting the availability of their mud-dwelling morsels, making them travel farther in search of food and providing less sustenance all together. |
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Other animals are also affected by the warming waters, as witnessed this spring when thousands of sea birds — including Brandts’ cormorants, brown pelicans, grebes and loons — died along the California coast. While researchers can’t say they all died from starvation, many of the animals appeared malnourished. And scientists say when animals don’t get enough to eat, they often exhibit riskier feeding behavior, and their immune systems become depressed — leaving them vulnerable to fungal and other infections. |
Kathi George, director of Cetacean Conservation Biology at The Marine Mammal Center, in Sausalito, said researchers have spotted 16 gray whales in San Francisco Bay this year — a place where gray whales were not seen historically before 2018. |
She said they appear to be feeding in the Bay, as they are in other inlets up and down the coast, looking for new places to find food. Necropsies show they are finding food, but the heavily trafficked waters put them at grave risk of entanglement and vessel strikes. She said four of the seven animals that have died in the Bay this year were likely hit by boats or ships. |
Theresa Mercer, who along with her husband, Scott Mercer, founded the Point Arena Mendonoma Whale and Seal Study in 2013, said they saw 344 northbound whales this year, including seven mother-calf pairs. She said those numbers “reflect what we used to count in 7-10 days in 2014-2018!” |
As scientists warily monitor what could become a super El Niño roiling in the Pacific, and a sustained marine heat wave seemingly locked in off the coast, they’re hoping these “jeeps of the ocean” — generalist whales known for their hardiness and resilience — can pull through this latest crisis. |
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In other climate and environmental news: |
The nearly catastrophic chemical tank explosion in Garden Grove this past week displaced more than 50,000 people and put most of Southern California on high alert. But as my colleague Hayley Smith wrote on Wednesday, as terrifying as the incident was, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. And shouldn’t be seen as a one-off. |
Around the start of World War II, the Greater Los Angeles region became a global hub for aerospace and defense manufacturing. Companies moved here to produce military aircraft, electronics, plastics, petroleum products and other specialized materials, creating a thriving but dense manufacturing zone alongside an exploding suburban population. |
But now that industrial infrastructure is getting old. And regulatory rollbacks and a growing population is increasing the probability such a scenario will happen again. |
As one source told Smith, “It’s not really whether industrial accidents are possible in the L.A. Basin — they are.” |
“The important question is whether regulatory systems, emergency preparedness and land use decisions are keeping pace with changing industrial hazards and growing urban densities.” |
And in water news: |
A coalition of conservation groups believes Southern California could get roughly 85% of its water locally — up from 50% — reducing the need for a tunnel to deliver water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. |
According to my colleague, Ian James, the coalition, which includes fishing groups, environmental organizations and Northern California’s Winnemem Wintu Tribe, has put together a 34-page plan that calls for “new urban water renaissance.” |
Their approach, James reported, could yield more water and cost far less than Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed Delta Conveyance Project beneath the Delta. |
The state estimated in 2024 the tunnel would cost $20.1 billion. Opponents have said it’s likely to cost three to five times more. |
The coalition is considering asking voters to approve a bond measure to fund local water solutions, such as building infrastructure to recycle more wastewater, capture more storm water, and improving efficiency and cleaning up contaminated groundwater. |
The water strategy suggests the region can secure up to 2 million acre-feet of local water per year at a cost of $44 billion over two decades, versus the Delta tunnel, which could cost $60 billion to $100 billion. |
And in a story that brings together wildlife, an industrial accident and water: |
Twenty-five birds were rescued last week following the rupture of after an East Los Angeles pipeline that spilled crude oil into storm drains that flow into the Los Angeles River. |
As my colleague Hailey Branson-Potts reported, dozens of birds got caught in the oily mess and were taken to the Los Angeles Oiled Bird Care and Education Center in San Pedro. |
A telecommunications crew working near the pipeline accidentally hit the line, causing more than 2,400 gallons of oil to gush onto city streets and down storm drains. |
