According to a study published Monday in the National Academy of Sciences the success story of the Pacific Gray Whale seems not to have been a success at all, but a gross miscalculation.
So it seems the Gray Whale should never have been removed from the endangered species list. As we have written about before the Gray Whale really is being starved out of existence. Global warming is taking its toll on the whale’s food supply.
The study concludes the original population of the Pacific Gray Whale was probably underestimated and that instead of 20,000 to 30,000 Gray Whales there may have closer to 100,000 whales.
When scientists figured that a population of 20,000 was close to a normal count they removed it from the endangered species list in 1994. They were wrong when in 1999-2000 the Pacific Gray Whales began dying in their assumption it was nature thinning the herd.
Now we have 80,000 Pacific Gray Whales unaccounted for, Jeff Breiwick, from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle is left wondering what happened to the 80,000 gray whales mistakenly unaccounted for in the historic population numbers.
Breiwick says computer models and historic documents used to estimate the level of whale hunting since the 1600’s would mean about 3 whales a day had been killed for 4 centuries. He wants to know where the evidence of that mortality can be found.
Everyone does agree that the new estimates on past populations indicate something very bad is happening now.
Maybe this new research was one reason for the hold up on granting the Whaling waiver to the Makah tribe!
The only US-Indian treaty that expressly gives a tribe the right to hunt whales as well as seals is the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. In the late 1920’s the Makah themselves suspended whaling because the population of Gray Whales had become so diminished from commercial whaling that began in the mid-ninetieth century,
The Gray Whale was placed on the federal endangered species list essentially banning the hunt for Gray Whales by anyone. The Makah’s had already stopped whaling in the 20’s so the ban had no relevant point to the tribe at that time.
When the Gray was removed from the endangered species list, in 1994, the point became one of the US federal government’s responsibility to live up to the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. As it was determined that the population of the Gray Whales was at a healthy number, a lawsuit was brought against NOAA fisheries in 1997 which led to the Makah’s being granted a quota of 5 ’strikes’ per year until 2002. The quota of 5 was set by the ‘whaling commission’.
The Makah resumed whaling in 1998. It is widely recognized that the tribe has only taken one whale since then, which was an adult female taken in 1999. An agreement was reached that after the quota period expired in 2002 the Makah would have to obtain a waiver before a hunt. So in February 2005 the Makah did just that…The US government is ‘reviewing the Tribe’s request’.
Is it reasonable for the federal government to take more than 3 1/2 years to review the Makah request to grant or deny the waiver?
Was Saturdays strike on the Gray Whale by some members of the Makah tribe a direct result of the frustration felt by having to wait more than 43 months for the thumbs up or down from the government?
The Makah Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson Jr, is afraid Saturday’s killing of the Gray Whale will affect the Makah’s case to be granted their waiver, and reaffirms the tribe did not authorize the killing of the whale over the weekend. He promises to prosecute ‘those responsible’.
Of the 5 men detained and later released on bail 2 of them were participants in the legal 1999 hunt. One of the men said he wasn’t ashamed of what he had done, and he was feeling ‘kind of proud’ and that he should have done it years ago.
Brian Gorman, A spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency that has taken 43 months to review the Makah request for a waiver said he does not believe Saturday’s whale killing will affect the tribe’s application.
What a sad state of affairs. The whale, now at the bottom of the sea, serving no one and 5 men facing fines of up to $20,000.00 each and a year in prison.
As is common when stories break there are several conflicting sides to this one. More information coming points to the fact that the Gray Whale that was shot by Makah tribe members was in fact intangled in fishing lines at the time it was shot.
As explained at the Makah website, modern day hunting is done with a spear from a 36 foot canoe.which is carved from a single cedar log. A harpooner in the bow of the canoe uses a steel harpoon mounted on a wooden shaft about 7 feet long. This is connected by ropes to buoys and then to the canoe. A rifleman using a .50 caliber rifle is then expected to ‘dispatch’, immediately kill, the whale by shooting it in the back or base of the skull.
Clearly the manner in which the Makah’s have outlined, as their methods for taking a whale, are the same reasons conflicting reports are being recounted by witness’s.
In aerial photos taken of this incident there are clearly orange buoys strings behind the injured Gray Whale, also a harpoon is clearly visible. Are these buoys in fact those that would be connected to the actual harpoon, and not a fishing net? Also are the reports of the whale being shot with a .50 caliber machine gun in fact in error and did the shots come from the Makah chaseboat and a .50 caliber rifle?
In any case reports are that the whale lived an agonizing 10 hours after being shot before dying. Was the slow death of the Gray Whale due to the interrupted hunt by the Coast Guard? All is speculation at this point, but one thing is clear; the whale should never have been allowed by any party to suffer a 10 hour death.
One thing is clear: This is a bad deal for all involved.
The AP is reporting that a Gray Whale had been shot by a machine gun near the western tip of Washington State.
The Coast Guard believes members of the Makah tribe shot and harpooned the Gray Whale on Saturday morning. The Whale after having been attacked did not die and is now limping its wounded way back out to sea.
As the Makah’s are happy to tell you at their own website “Whaling has been one of our traditions for over 1,500 years and is a right secured to us by treaty…”
The Makah’s also believe that many of their health problems come from the lack of Sea Mammal Meat in their diet. Give the Makah the genetic link to ‘needing blubber’ in their diet, but take the right to their 50-caliber machine guns away from them if this story turns out to be true.
The Makah are allowed to take 5 Gray Whales per year as part of their ‘cultural and subsistence rights’. I’m no expert on Makah Culture, but I’ll guarantee 1.500 years ago the brave hunters of the Makah Tribe were NOT using machine guns to bring in their hunt.
It seems to me the term ‘culture’ needs to be revisited and revisited in a HUGE way!
The Makah website is also happy to point out in their FAQ section “We will conduct it (the hunt) in a way that is as consistent as possible with our traditional manner of whale hunting, but also with the requirement of the International Whaling Commission and the Marine Mammal Protection Act that the killing of the whale be done in as humane a manner as possible, and at the same time with as much safety as possible for our hunters.”
Sadly many people have been trying to turn up the ‘RACE CARD’ when it comes to the Makah and whaling. The problem with stirring a pot of waste until it comes to a boil is that more often than not, that waste will splatter back upon the one that is stirring the pot. Cruelty is not owned by any particular Race and should be chided when and where ever it is found.
We can only hope that the initial reports of this incident are in error.
Just as shooting fish in a barrel is part of no ones culture, machine gunning down and wounding an animal without killing it is one of the cruelest acts imaginable and hopefully not a part of any ones culture. We hope this act was committed by ’street gangs running rampant’ in the waters off the coast of Washington State.
The illustrated migration route shown in this video really drives home just how amazing the trek from breeding grounds to feeding grounds really is for the Gray Whales. Just knowing there is a creature on this earth with that much stamina and drive makes me feel privileged to share the earth with the Gray Whale.
The mother Gray whales stay behind with their young in the protected bays in Baja until they are both ready to make the trip north to feed on the fatty amphipods in the Bering Sea.
These days, upon arrival at the Bering Sea these poor mothers are finding there is a dwindling food supply for both themselves and their young. Any mother would feel the heartbreak and the alarm finding a situation like this. The Gray Whales cannot be too different from us.
Now why in the world is there no way to repopulate the Gray Whales feeding grounds with more amphipods? This earth is spotted with huge manmade lakes that have been ’stocked’ with fish of all varieties for the sport fishermen. But, apparently there is no way to toss some food the Gray Whales way. Is there no way to help?
When will the world start coming up with immediate stopgap solutions? There are those that will say, “Temporary help is like putting a bandage on a gaping wound”. Well okay then, shall we do nothing at all but debate ad nauseam the cause of Global Warming?
If you see me by the side of the road with a gaping wound, please put a bandage on me until I can be fixed properly. It’s the humane way to act.
Quite honestly if ice-cold deep seawater is being pumped into pipes under soil, for heaven sakes, so that people in the tropics can ‘enjoy the wonders of spinach’, then why can’t some of this water be used to cultivate amphipods? Oh the reason is as plain as the nose on my face! There would be no profit in doing that.
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.
Gray whales that have been feeding in the Northern Bering Sea for thousands of years are finding their favorite food is disappearing.
In June The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) counted 1,018 Gray whale calves passing Point Piedras Blancas off the California coast. That number being up from 2001 when only 945 were counted. That sounds like a good thing until we find out more and more of them are looking ’skinny’.
These fattened numbers lead Wayne Perryman, NOAA biologist to tell the Chronicle “In the short term, they (Gray whales) appear to be doing well based on our monitoring of reproduction, but we really don’t know how the long-term warming trend is going to affect this population.”
Well, now scientists are getting a better understanding of how Global Warming is affecting these animals. In May a Canadian researcher said the Gray whales in the eastern Pacific were “facing starvation”.
William Megill, from Earthwatch, reported finding Gray whales off the coast of Mexico “that were starving” over this past winter. In 1993 their numbers were reported as being in the 25,000 range while this year those numbers have fallen to about 18,000.
Eastern Pacific Gray whales eat small shrimp, which live at the bottom of the Bering Sea. These tasty fatty amphipods have all but disappeared, Global Warming being the the ultimate culprit.
Researchers say the warmer El Nino weather of 1998 and 1999 reduced oxygen levels, resulting in fewer tiny crustaceans for whales to dine upon.
The Gray whales that migrate from Mexico to the Bering Sear are stopping along the way to munch down on foods less high in fat content. These non-traditional food sources are also leaving the whales open to new types of parasites. This could be accounting for the ’skinny whales syndrome’. The skinny Gray whales were first spotted this winter off the coast of Baja California where they breed and nurse their calves before their summer trip to the Arctic.
One of the reasons for the disappearing amphipods is the loss of ice and warming waters in the north. The warmer waters are inviting new types of fish to migrate further north causing even the oceans to now have an immigration problem. The new immigrants are in turn eating more of the tiny shrimp leaving less food for the Gray whales.
The tiny amphipods are disappearing not only because there are more ‘customers’ dining in the Bering Sea, but because they are also being starved out. The amphipods eat an alga that rains down from mats that hang below ice sheets.
Warmer waters, fewer ice sheets and less algae is a recipe for an Eco-system in crisis. The Gray whales are in trouble.
