Puzzling Deaths of Gray Whales Off California Coast Probed

Abridged Story

From a news story by
CNN San Francisco Reporter Rusty Dornin

May 1, 2000

Every year gray whales migrate from the Bering Sea in Alaska to the Baja Peninsula in Mexico.

Eleven gray whales have died in the San Francisco Bay in the last three weeks. No one knows why the whales are dying.

Last year 270 whales died along the whales' migration route. Many people think starvation is the cause. This year the dead whales seem to have more blubber (fat) on them.

Twenty years ago, the gray whale was listed as an endangered species.

Some scientists think that the larger number of whales makes it hard to find enough food. El Nino weather may have caused the whales' food supply to be smaller.

Most of the whales have been dead for many days before they are found and studied. This makes it hard to find the reason for death.

65 whales have been seen in the San Francisco Bay Area this year compared to 17 last year. The whales could be dying from many diseases, but it may be over-population.

Additional Notes:

Every year gray whales migrate from the Bering Sea in Alaska to the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. This is a journey of 7,000 miles (some researchers think it is closer to 10,000 miles) the longest migration of any marine mammal. The whales feed in the Bering Sea in summer and then migrate to Mexico to have their babies. They do not eat anything on their long migration until they return to Alaska - 3 to 5 months later. More of the whales are dying during the migration and many of them are adults.

Here is a wonderful tutorial that shows the migration, feeding and calving of gray whales:

• California Gray Whale Tutorial
  
  A Bay Area group provides up-to-date reports on the gray whale migration:
  
  
• The Marine Mammal Center
  
  
  

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