Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Lost habitat in the Sea as well as on Land make living risky. Gray Whales may be Starving!
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Gray whale that died June 3, in Metchosin after beaching himself probably died from starvation. This young guy was the 5th dead whale, 3 of which were Gray whales, to show up in the area. It was a bad month for the Gray whales.
Dr. Stephen Raverty told The Vancouver Sun he didn’t believe there was a pattern of whale deaths emerging and that it was probably a coincidence…Probably because their bodies weren’t sinking…Probably because they were showing up in more accessible places. Raverty said, “this animal is quite emaciated. It probably starved…”
Probably. I’m not a rocket scientist, I’m not a Gray whale or Grey whale expert, but how many dead gray whales or other species does it take to make a pattern? Pattern or not, one thing is certain; the sea is not a safe place for sea creatures.
A Gray whale washed up in Boundary Bay on May 17th, and a few days later another Gray whale died on the beaches of the Oregon coast.
The dead Oregon Gray whale was a female 5-10 years old. She may have starved to death too. Adding insult to injury, this poor thing was stripped of her baleen on the right side of her jaw after she died. Someone also took parts of her body and skin proving some people have no respect for the dead, let alone the living. In the USA taking marine mammal parts is a federal crime.
Biologists have speculated the emaciated Gray whales had reached their ‘carrying capacity’. Their migration back and forth from Baja California to breed and birth, to the Arctic Circle to eat, requires a huge amount of energy. They need refueling that used to come from the previously nutrient rich, shallow waters of the Chirikov Basin in the north Bering Sea.
Global Warming is having a huge impact on marine health, and the future doesn’t look rosy for the Gray whales. Loss of habitat for food sources are only one cause for alarm, there may loom an even bigger threat from the US, Canada and even Russia to the Gray whale. We’ll look at that tomorrow it’s a biggy.
Labels: Environment, Global Warming, Gray, Gray Whale, Ocean, Ocean Habitat, Sea, Sea Mammals, Whales
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Lost habitat in the Sea as well as on Land make living risky. Gray Whales may be Starving!
