Gray whale deaths: How humans and climate change hurt oceans
LA TimesSAN IGNACIO, Mexico — For thousands of years, the gray whales of the eastern Pacific have undertaken one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal — starting in the cold waters of the Arctic, then down past the densely populated coasts and beaches of California before finally finding refuge in the warm, shallow estuaries of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Gray whales are known for being hardy and resilient — “the jeeps of the ocean,” as retired U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration biologist Wayne Perryman calls them — but something has gone badly wrong. “Let’s just hope we figure this out before it’s too late.” Balvi Vasquez pets and talks to a gray whale in San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California, on Feb. 16, 2021. “They don’t call them robustus for nothing.” Back from the brink of extinction Gray whales were once found in oceans worldwide, with an estimated peak population along the eastern Pacific of roughly 26,000.
History of this topic
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