WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Gray Whale, Part 3 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:08.240 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:09.120 name is Robert. 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:12.760 Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. Time 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:14.720 to go into the vault for an older episode of 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.520 the show. This is Part three of our series on 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.799 the gray whale. Parts one and two aired on Tuesday 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:25.080 and Thursday of this previous week. This episode originally published 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:33.120 on March ninth, twenty twenty three. I hope you enjoy. 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:37.440 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.400 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:45.440 is Robert Lamb. 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:48.360 And I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with Part three, 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.840 the final part in our series on gray whales. Now 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.080 in the previous episodes, which if you haven't listened to yet, 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:57.720 you should probably go back and check out parts one 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.760 and two. First, in the previous ones, we described the 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:07.240 morphology and behavior of the species scientific name Eschrichtius robustus, 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:11.520 the robust buddies, the grey whales, and we talked about 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.120 their relationship with the barnacles that often pile up on 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:17.920 them like a like a big old nasty crust. And 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.000 we talked about their relationship with their main predator other 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.760 than humans, the orca uh. And today we're going to 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:29.880 kick off addressing their amazing migratory habits, which is probably 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.959 one of the main things to understand about this species. 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.320 Yeah yeah, And to sort of draw back to those 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.119 previous episodes that reiterate that I did get the chance 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.840 to see grey whales in the wild at their breeding lagoons, 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.800 a particular one of their breeding lagoons called Ojo de 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:52.280 Labra Lagoon on the Baja Peninsula about halfway down the 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.360 Baja Peninsula, and it was an amazing experience. So I'll 0:01:55.360 --> 0:02:00.280 refer back to to some of my observations alongside thevarious 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.080 sighted materials that we're going to be referring to now. 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.240 Speaking of those breeding lagoons, in the last episode, we 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.480 mostly discussed these as the safe waters for the birth 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.440 of the whale calves and a reason for migration in 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.160 gray whales in particular. But as highlighted in one of 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.960 the books that I was using here, whales their biology 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:25.280 and behavior by Hammond at all, there are other considerations 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.239 to take into account concerning first of all, just migration 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.400 of balen whales in general. So on the reproductive front, yes, 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.440 protection from orcas does seem to be a major factor, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.960 particularly with gray whales, and there's the additional hypothesis that 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.440 the whale calves to survive and grow better in warmer waters. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.280 It's also argued that it's simply energetically more efficient to 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.280 swim to warmer waters than to overwinter up north. There's 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.959 also more visibility and shelter in tropical waters. We talked, 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.640 and this comes back to orcus survival to a large extent, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.680 gust the gray whales ability to seek shallower waters. And 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.440 part of that is that there it sounds like they're 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.720 just more nooks and crannies that the whales may venture 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:13.880 into to find refuge. Yeah. 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.160 So, for example, when gray whales are threatened by orcas, 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.639 it's been observed that they might try to seek shelter, 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.160 say in kelp beds, or like in hiding in seaweed, 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.919 or even in breaking surf, which apparently helps obscure their presence. 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.360 Yeah, and we'll come back some more details about this 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.120 in a minute. The authors here do stress, however, that 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:39.280 there's just there's no one size fits all explanation, especially 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.800 considering that there are various differences in behavior among the 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.119 balen whales in general. For instance, they mentioned that one 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.760 factor for many balen whales, again not grey whales specifically, 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.960 but other filter feeding whales, seems to be that during 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.840 the summer you have a stratification of the water column 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:04.440 to include a highly photic zone, resulting in rapid photosynthesis 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:11.080 and reproduction of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are the plant plankton, and 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.320 these phytoplankton in turn feed the zooplankton, which of course 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:19.240 are the animal plankton, and this generally fattens up the 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.559 entire ecosystem in these waters. But then in the winter, 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.880 cooling temps and strong winds break up the stratification, mixing 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:30.880 the vertical water column. Phytoplankton can't stay near the surfaces easily, 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.960 there's increasingly less sunlight, and prey availability takes a dive 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:35.479 as well. 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.160 Okay, so the plankton scene kind of dries up a 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:39.600 little bit. 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.280 Yeah. Now, as we mentioned, and I believe the first episode, 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:45.560 gray whales are of course rather different than a lot 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.680 of the other baileen whales, I mean, all the other 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:53.400 extent baalen whales, because they're not really going after things 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.000 like kelp and zooplankton. No, they're going after those benthic 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.520 organisms like isopods in the sand on the seafloor, so 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:07.320 they're not directly feeding for the most part on plankton. However, 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:09.599 the benthic organisms down there are still part of the 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:13.120 food web and are therefore impacted as well by all 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:13.320 of this. 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.440 Okay, so if you don't recall, we described their typical 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.080 feeding behavior, I think in part one of this series, 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:23.200 where unlike the whales you've probably seen kind of like 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.840 zooming around near the surface of the water and just 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.520 like letting water wash into their mouths and filtering out 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.599 all of the plankton or the krill or whatever with 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:36.480 their billion, the gray whales have a habit of slamming 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.919 their heads into the sediment on the ocean bottom in 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.479 relatively shallow areas to sort of like scoop up a 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.680 bunch of this sediment and then get use their billion 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.960 to filter the organisms out of it and eat those. 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.120 Yeah, exactly like basically scraped in one side of their 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.719 face across the sea floor. Now there's another interesting factor 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.880 in all this. So we mentioned in one of the 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.640 previous episodes that grey whales have been observed in recent 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.320 years overwintering in the Arctic and not making the migration 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.960 down south in rare instances. And I don't believe we're 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:16.240 talking about reproductive or currently reproducing females in these cases. 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.680 But basically this is a situation where we have to 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.000 consider climate change once again. We have to remember that 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:26.080 climate change has some of its more drastic effects in 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.080 the Arctic. And I was reading and interesting NOAA paper 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.400 dealing with some of this, titled Sentinels of Change Gray 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.360 Whales in the Arctic, pointing out that less sea ice 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.279 means more exposed ocean areas, and this alone has a 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.280 huge impact on the environment. But they also point out 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.920 the following. So in cold years, what you have happening 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.880 first is a spring bloom of plankton. But in the 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:54.880 early spring, most zooplankton are not yet ready to graze. Meanwhile, 0:06:54.880 --> 0:07:01.400 the phytoplankton, the plants digging all that sunlight, they're just 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.400 going crazy, and there's so much of it that the 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.640 zooplankton are not in. The zooplankton are not ready to 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:08.520 feed on it yet, so most of it ends up 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.280 sinking to the bottom. And what happens at the bottom, well, 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.480 that's where the benthic organisms are and they feast on them. 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.880 And again that is what the gray whales are primarily 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.400 going to eat, those creatures down there that just date 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.440 all of this phytoplankton. In warmer years, however, the sea 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.680 ice melts too early, there's not enough light to really 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.600 power up the spring bloom of phytoplankton, and so the 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:33.880 phytoplankton bloom is delayed and it doesn't really hit until 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.520 oh the zooplankton is fully ready to feed, meaning that 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.320 the zooplankton can eat most of it. There's less to 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.840 rain down to the benthic organisms. 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.760 Okay, so that sounds not great for grey whales. 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.120 That's what it would sound, right, yeah, because that's their 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:52.280 primary feast down there. But what this particular paper stresses 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.920 is that as warmer years likely continue due to climate change, 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.840 we might see gray whales shift in their diet. So 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:06.040 we mentioned that they're fairly opportunistic, so they will do 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.360 some filter feeding in the upper portions of the of 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:14.000 the water. So if they aren't able to get what 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.040 they would normally get down there at the bottom, or 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.200 it seems like there's more, say zooplankton in the upper 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.600 portion of the water column. Then they will eat that 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.760 and potentially eat that instead. So it's a situation where 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.440 they outline that a couple of things might happen. We 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.320 might just see them displaced from their traditional feeding grounds, 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:36.560 but we also might see a portion of their diet 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:40.200 shift more in favor of filter feeding upwards in the 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.200 water column, eating more zooplankton than would normally make up 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.080 their diet. And I think, goodness, I'm trying to remember 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.160 what the percentage was when we talked about it, but 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.720 it's like a huge percentage of their known normal diet 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.200 is those benthic organisms down there in the sand. So 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.240 it's kind of a good news not I don't know 0:08:58.240 --> 0:08:59.839 if it's a good news bad new situation, but anyway, 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:02.960 it's weeks to These organisms have been around for a 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.559 long time, and part of their ability to survive has 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.040 been their ability to make reasonable adaptations. 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:10.720 Yes, And I guess that brings us back to the 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.360 issue of the migration, because what we're talking about right 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:17.400 now is primarily what's happening in their feeding grounds in 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.120 the Arctic waters, but that's only half of the story. 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:22.760 That's where they fatten up up north, especially when we're 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:26.880 talking about this population of the Eastern Pacific gray whales. 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.600 The other half of the story is reproduction, which involves 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:31.560 a journey south. 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.160 That's right, and this is quite a journey for the 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:37.600 gray whales. The distance between their summer feeding grounds and 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:41.600 their winter breeding grounds can exceed twenty thousand kilometers. That's 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.839 something like four hundred and twenty seven miles. Now, it's 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.920 worth discussing again again. These are not deep ocean whales, 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.200 and that makes sense given their diet. They primarily stick 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:59.040 to shallow continental shelf waters. They stick reasonably close to 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.360 the coast, and therefore we see that reflected also in 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:04.920 the way they migrate between these two waters. They're not 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.040 making a beeline from one area to the next. Their 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:13.000 journey tends to be more coastal, with some alterations depending 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.559 on exactly whe their circumstances are. Now, we mentioned that 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.280 there used to be a population of North Atlantic gray whales, 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:25.040 and it's thought that they would have fed around Newfoundland, 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.160 the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Iceland, and Europe's North Sea. 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.120 And it's thought that they would have found winter breeding 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.959 refuges somewhere along the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.760 here in the States, as well as uncertain spots along 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.199 the coasts of Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Now, this population 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:48.520 was essentially extinct by the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.920 due at the very least in a large part to whaling, 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:57.120 if not largely to whaling or entirely to whaling. Interestingly enough, 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.559 there have been proposals to try and reintroduce specific gray 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.880 whales into this region to restore the population. I think 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.800 we mentioned this previously. And there's also the possibility that 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:10.319 they may recolonize the area themselves as in the future 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.720 as sea ice melts and opens up these waters to 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:17.880 them once again. So the North Pacific population potentially recolonizing 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.880 the North Atlantic, But that's kind of hypothetical. We're not 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.640 sure exactly how that would pan out, though. 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.280 I guess it's always possible, because occasionally you do find 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.839 whales like way outside of their normal ranges, right, They 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.200 just kind of pop up in strange places that you 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:37.480 don't usually find them. 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:39.679 Yeah, there are a couple of outstanding examples of that 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.040 that Carbonine points out. A single gray whale was sighted 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.520 off the coast of Israel in twenty ten and in 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.120 twenty thirteen, one was seen off the coast of Namibia, 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:50.040 and it's uncertain exactly why. In both of these cases, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.640 the Hammond at All point out that their origin was 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.840 almost certainly the North Pacific population in both cases. 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.400 Though, yeah, that's great. How would they get that far away? Yeah, 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.280 I mean, I guess we know they can swim away 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:06.240 as due to their to their habitual migrations. But yeah, 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.760 you want to know the story of that wandering whale. 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:14.120 Yeah, now, now coming back to that now extinct North 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:19.160 Atlantic population. Quick Outlander note out for everyone out there. 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.960 I was reminded of this. My wife reminded me that 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:26.040 we had watched this. But the television series adaptation of 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.480 Outlander has a scene set on the coast of South Carolina, 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.040 and again this is about time travelers going back in time, 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.439 in which two of our time traveling characters remark about 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.480 some whale activity off the coast and how they wouldn't 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.360 have seen this in their original timelines or in the 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.600 original times, and the footage they use in the show, 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.520 I had to check it. It's not gray whales that 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.280 they're they're using here, I believe, but it certainly made 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.120 me think of this scenario that you're like, Yeah, if 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:55.920 you went back in time before human whaling activity seemingly 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:01.000 had a chance to just drastically alter the the ecosystem 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.040 in the Atlantic, you would have potentially seen these great whales, 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.120 Like it would have been possible for me to see 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:12.400 gray whales in my home state of Georgia potentially without 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.000 having to travel to the other side of the continent 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:16.480 and then to another country. 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:19.920 And when is this said an outlander? Is this like 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:21.960 early eighteenth century or something? 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.760 Yeah, the initial transplant I think is from nineteen forty 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:30.679 five to seventeen forty three. Okay, okay, yeah, And certainly, 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:35.480 as we'll discuss, given the population changes in the gray whale, 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:37.840 like nineteen forty five, it was a bad time for 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.199 the great whale anyway. This also reminded me of something 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.600 that our previous guest on the show. This, I think 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.079 was while you were out, Joe, I talked with Ryan 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.480 Tucker Jones, author of the book Red Leviathan, which is 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.840 largely about Soviet whaling in the Industrial Age, but it 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.080 also discusses just the history of whaling in general. In it, 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.840 it's a fascinating look at like why the the Soviet 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:06.760 Union got increasingly into whaling during the Industrial Age, and 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:10.439 the impact of it, what was also learned scientifically from it. 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:12.960 And there's a bit in that. This is just from 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.760 the introduction where he writes, quote, as someone who grew 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.400 up in Oregon and California in the nineteen eighties, I 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:22.320 experienced the ocean at the whale's lowest point, an ocean 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.760 that had been created by the Soviet Union as much 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.080 as anyone. The history of Soviet whaling belongs to anyone 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:32.600 who looks out to the sea and sees nothing. Ooh. Yeah, 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.320 there are a lot of really haunting moments in the 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.000 book and just a lot of great details. Certainly go 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.160 back and listen to that interview for more, or just 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.440 check out the book. Just a reminder that the grey 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:45.720 whale in particular was hunted near the point of extinction 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.400 by humans. We slaughtered them on their migration routes, We 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.320 slaughtered them in their northern feeding grounds, and we slaughtered 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.760 them in their breeding lagoons. They were afforded full protection 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.720 in nineteen forty six, though Soviet whalers took three hundred 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.320 and twenty under scientific permit in nineteen sixty, along with 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.800 another one hundred and thirty eight illegally. These figures according 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.960 to Carwodine in Carwadine Just in case you don't remember, 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.040 I haven't cited him in this episode, but that's Mark 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.320 Carwodine's Handbook of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises of the World. 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:16.880 But adding more context from Jones here, he notes that 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.240 by the end of the classical age of whaling, so 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.480 the pre industrial sailing age of whaling, the sort of 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.560 moby Dick era of whaling quote, humans mainly Americans, had 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.280 reduced Pacific gray whales from around twenty four thousand to 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.480 a remnant population of two thousand. Atlantic grey whales were 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:35.960 entirely extinct. 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.440 And so from what I understand today, Atlantic grey whales, 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.320 they are gone for all we know. And then there 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.800 are the two populations. There is the Western Pacific grey whale, 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:50.960 which lives along the eastern coast of the Asian mainland. 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:55.560 That population is, from what we can tell, in pretty 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.800 rough shape today. I don't remember how many individuals it's 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.680 down to, but it's estimated to be pretty low. Whereas 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:07.040 the Eastern Pacific gray whale, along the coast of North America, 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:08.480 is doing okay. 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:13.520 Yeah, And in terms of the classical and industrial whaling, like, 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.960 certain species were impacted more in different in different phases. 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:23.000 So the gray whales were slower, and they tended to 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.480 be closer to shore, so in many respects they were 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:27.840 easier to catch during that classic age of whaling, though 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.520 like we mentioned, they were the devilfish. They could certainly 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:33.880 put up a hell of a fight as well. But 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.840 as the age of industrial whaling brought many of the 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.480 faster species like blue whales and fins into the sort 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.720 of whaling fold, here those whales had fewer defenses against whalers. 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.880 They'd really only ever had to contend with Orca Jones rides. 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.520 But meanwhile, in the age of industrialized Soviet whaling quote, 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.800 gray whales were particularly tricky. Soviet whalers noted that despite 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.840 being slow, the gray was the only whale and he 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.000 quotes about which no rules of catching have been established. 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.479 Only on rare occasions did grays move in a straight line, 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:10.840 instead usually swimming in zigzags, making movements to one or 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:15.040 the other side without determined direction. Science the Soviets hoped 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.240 might help establish some or other pattern to its movement. 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:24.040 I wonder if the ways that different whales react to 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.679 reacted to threats by human whalers was affected by the 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:33.639 different strategies these species had for dealing with orca. Obviously, 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.159 the threats posed by human whalers and orca are going 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.439 to be of a very different shape and nature. But 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.600 maybe some anti predator strategies aimed at orca were just 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.119 also just also happened to, by coincidence, be better at 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:48.480 evading human whalers. 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.959 Yeah, it sounds likely because certainly one of the things 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.239 about the industrial ages just had faster ships and they 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.040 could keep up with whales, and they could get those 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.040 whales that were further out. So great whales in the 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.680 North Pacific were greatly reduced by this time, and those 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:07.240 that remained were even harder to acquire. Jones also notes 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.640 that by nineteen thirty six, the average size of grey 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:13.200 whales captured was greatly decreased, and the reasoning here was 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:17.280 quote the population was no longer seeing its members to adulthood, 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:20.199 because again, these are creatures. They can live I think 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.040 upwards of late like eighty years or so if I'm 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.600 remembering correctly, and they're just they That's how impacted the 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.359 population was now today. Carwoden notes that while grey whales 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.600 in general have greatly rebounded and like, if you look 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.040 them up online, you'll quickly see that they're listed as 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.720 least concern as far as conservation status goes, which is 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.119 great news. That's a heck of a comeback story. But 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.520 they're still threatened by oil and gas developments in the 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:47.479 Arctic and declining sea ice. Other threats include entanglement and 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:52.960 fishing gear, occasional illegal harpooning, chemical pollution, noise pollution, ship collision, 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.720 and the expansion of sea salt production in Baja California. 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.200 In my own experience down there in Baja California, I 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:02.440 mean the lagoon that we ventured out to in order 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.280 to see the whales was surrounded pretty much only by 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:09.200 salt industry projects, so I can understand what that would 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.159 be a concern. Carwadine also notes that while the Eastern 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.040 North Pacific group is doing great at the moment, there 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.600 was you do see some fluctuations. So there was a 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.719 six hundred and fifty one whale die off in nineteen 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.600 ninety nine through twenty eleven, and that would have been 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.800 like a twenty three percent population die off, though this 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:33.480 doesn't necessarily reflect long term survivability. According to the NOAA, 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.840 you can have big swings in population like that and 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:42.480 it doesn't necessarily speak to how the species is doing 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.399 long term. But that Western North Pacific population, like we 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.880 said earlier, this one, according to Carbadene, is quote one 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.320 of the most endangered whale populations in the world. So 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:54.600 even though the species at whole is doing better, we're 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:59.520 mostly looking at the Eastern North Pacific group as opposed 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.159 to the West North Pacific group. Again, to whatever extent, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.080 that's a true separate population because we do see overlap 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:18.440 in their breeding and behavior. So getting more back into 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.439 just the migration patterns here that are pretty fascinating. We 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:25.000 have the North Pacific gray whale to contend with here, 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.440 and you have these two basic groups. The Eastern North 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.800 Pacific grays migrate between those Baja California breeding lagoons and 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:36.119 summer feeding grounds and the bearing chuck Chi and Beaufort seats, 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.320 though this range is expanding as the ice opens up again. 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.520 The Western North Pacific grays migrate between winter breeding grounds 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:46.560 somewhere in the South China Sea to summer feeding grounds 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:51.639 in the Sea of Okotsk and parts of Kamchatka, and 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:53.800 there is some mixing of these groups in both the 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.480 summer and winter. Now, the eastern North Pacific grays have 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.879 the longer of the two migrations, spanning up to fifty 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.119 degrees of latitude, according to Carwoodine, and the shortest return 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.439 journey for these whales is about twelve thousand kilometers or 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.359 about seven thousand, four hundred and fifty six miles. He 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.119 adds that the longest documented migration of any mammal was 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.320 a female gray whale with a twenty two thousand, five 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:20.439 hundred and eleven kilometer round trip between sakal And Island, 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:23.160 Russia and Baja California, Mexico. So that would have been 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.400 again that we're talking about how there is overlap in 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:30.640 the ranges of the eastern and the western. Now, note 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.639 that there's also apparently a two hundred strong Pacific coast 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:36.199 feeding group that doesn't migrate all the way up to 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:39.080 the Arctic at all, but feeds off a coastal area 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:43.240 stretching between northern California in southeast Alaska. And there's another 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.560 group that feeds and Puget Sound. So all right, here 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:49.920 are the stages of the migration, and in covering these stages, 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:51.439 we're going to hit on some of the things we've 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:55.040 discussed already, but try and keep it reasonably succinct here. 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.560 But first we'll start with leaving the Arctic. Okay, they've 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.800 been feeding. The whales has been feeding up north, and 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.400 the signal to heads south seems to be a combination 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:07.600 of the formation of sea ice and the decreasing day length. 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:12.520 Apparently ninety percent leave the Bearing Sea through Inemac Pass 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:16.280 on a sixty day journey to Baja California. Near term 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:19.960 mothers leave first, then other adults, then immature females, and 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:23.359 then immature males. The last are on their way south 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:26.160 while the first group is already on their way back north. Again. 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:27.560 Oh, that's interesting. 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:31.159 The orca threat is far less during this part of 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:34.639 the cycle, again referring back to the to the orcas. 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:37.960 The orcas are are are intelligent and cunning in their 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:44.120 hunting of these dangerous, these fearsome prey species. So at 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:46.680 this point, the whales have been feeding all summer long, 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.760 so they're they're they're fueled up, they're they're ready to fight, 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.399 and their calves are are are even larger than they 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:58.800 were previously, so everybody stronger, everyone's well fed. It's not 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:01.880 to say that the orcas won't feed or won't attempt 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.320 to acquire prey, but this is not the optimal time 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:06.640 to do. 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:09.200 It, and a reminder of what we talked about last time. 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:12.239 This would be related to the fact that orcas are 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:16.160