Gray Whale Calf Count Increases from All-time Low, Positive Sign for the Population

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Gray Whale Calf Count Increases from All-time Low, Positive Sign for the Population
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Twice as many calves head north to Arctic feeding grounds with their mothers.

for the population. We have also seen higher numbers of mother-calf pairs in Mexican wintering lagoons and fewer whales stranding and dying on their migration north.

That is nearly twice the estimated all-time low of 217 mother-calf pairs migrating north last year, which was the fewest since surveys began in 1994. However, it remains far below the estimate of roughly 1,500 gray whale calves in 2016, when the gray whale population contained nearly 27,000 whales. A count last winter estimated that the total population had fallen to about 14,500 whales.

Gray whale use of the eastern North Pacific corridor showing feeding grounds, migration route, and lagoons where calves are born. Eastern North Pacific gray whale abundance and the number of calves born annually are shown in the lower lefthand corner. Credit: NOAA FisheriesContinued strandings included emaciated whales that suggested some were not finding sufficient food during their summer feeding seasons in the Arctic.

“I think there are still some important mysteries going on here and the role of conditions in the Arctic is one,” said Calambokidis, who is part of a team of scientists probing the causes of the UME.

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