A lone female western north Pacific gray whale has set a record for long-distance migration, a study published on Tuesday found.
Nicknamed Varvara, the nine-year-old whale was tagged off Russia’s Sakhalin Island in 2011.
She crossed from the northwestern to the northeastern side of the Pacific Ocean and followed the western Canadian and US coasts down to breeding grounds off Baja California, Mexico.
She swam 10,880km in 69 days: “the longest recorded distance traveled during a mammal migration,” scientists said.
She returned to Sakhalin Island by a more southerly route, completing a 172-day, 22,511km trek, also a record for round-trip migration.
DETHRONED
Until now, the record-holder for mammal migration had been the humpback whale, one of which made a one-way trip of 9,800km from waters off Brazil to Madagascar, according to a 2010 study.
The new research, published in the British journal Biology Letters, raises intriguing questions about gray whales — Latin name Eschrichtius robustus.
Gray whales exist in both the eastern and western north Pacific Ocean; conservationists consider the two populations to be separate.
Commercial whaling ravaged numbers on both sides of the ocean.
EAST VS WEST
However, whales in the east have largely recovered, while those in the west remain on the edge of extinction. At one point, the western gray whale population was thought to have been wiped out.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the western gray whale population at about 130, making it “critically endangered.”
However, if Varvara’s trek is any guide, there could be a genetic mix between the eastern and western populations, the investigators said.
In other words, some presumed western gray whales could be eastern gray whales.
“The population identity of whales off Sakhalin Island needs further evaluation,” said the scientists, led by Ladd Irvine at Oregon State University.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese