The number of gray whales migrating along the Pacific coast of North America has steadily declined by nearly 40 percent from a 2016 peak, and the population produced its fewest calves on record this year, US research released on Friday showed.
The 38 percent drop from the population’s 2016 high of 27,000 whales to 16,650 this year resembles previous fluctuations, but warrants further attention, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Administration (NOAA) report said.
Researchers at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego, California, said the latest decline, although not fully explained, likely entails several factors including environmental changes that have shifted the whales’ food sources of tiny crustaceans and other invertebrates they prey on in the arctic.
Photo: Reuters
“Given the continuing decline in numbers since 2016, we need to be closely monitoring the population to understand what may be driving this trend,” David Weller, director of the center’s marine mammal and turtle division, said in comments announcing the findings.
A spike in gray whale strandings detected along the west coast of North America from Mexico through Alaska two years ago prompted NOAA Fisheries to declare an “unusual mortality event” for the population in 2019, triggering closer scrutiny of the phenomenon.
Many of the about 600 whales found washed up dead on beaches from 2019 to this year appeared malnourished, although some had died from other causes, such as boat collisions or attacks from killer whales, NOAA said.
The overall population slump among west coast gray whales coincides with diminished reproduction, researchers found.
The most recent count of baby whales that ended in May estimated calf production this year at about 217 newborns, down from 383 calves tallied last year and the lowest number since such counts began in 1994, NOAA fisheries said.
Gray whales, one of the largest animals on Earth weighing up to 41 tonnes and reaching lengths of 15m, are known for their visible annual 16km migration between feeding grounds in the arctic and breeding grounds in Mexico’s Baja California.
Gray whales of the eastern Pacific Ocean have seen sharp declines before, as in the late 1980s and early 1990s when their numbers similarly dropped about 40 percent before rebounding to a new high point, the NOAA said.
Commercial whaling once drove gray whales to the brink of extinction, but they have recovered enough to have been removed from the endangered species List in 1994.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS