WEBVTT - The Gray Whale, Part 3 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:06.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.320 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.400 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.360 back with Part three, the final part in our series 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:26.360 on gray whales. Now in the previous episodes, which if 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:28.120 you haven't listened to yet, you'd probably go back and 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.760 check out parts one and two. First, in the previous ones, 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:36.200 we described the morphology and behavior of the species scientific 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:41.280 name is Shrichtius robust us. There the robust buddies, the 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.800 gray whales, and we talked about their relationship with the 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.080 barnacles that often pile up on them like a like 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:50.120 a big old nasty crust. And we talked about their 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:54.200 relationship with their main predator other than humans, the orca. 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.440 And today we're going to kick off addressing their amazing 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.160 migratory habits, which is probably one of the main things 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:06.560 to understand about this species. Yeah, yeah, And to sort 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.680 of draw back to those previous episodes that reiterate that 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.200 I did get the chance to see gray whales in 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.280 the wild at their breeding lagoons, A particular one of 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:21.480 their breeding lagoons called Ojo Delia Gray Lagoon on the 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.280 Baja Peninsula about halfway down the Baja Peninsula, and it 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.760 was an amazing experience. So I'll refer back to to 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:32.800 some of my observations alongside the various sided materials that 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:34.840 we're going to be referring to now speaking of those 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.840 breeding lagoons. In the last episode, you know, we mostly 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.959 discussed these as the safe waters for the birth of 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.920 the whale calves and a reason for migration in gray 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.160 whales in particular. But as highlighted in one of the 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.280 books that I was using here, whales their biology and 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:56.560 behavior by Hammond at all, there are other considerations to 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.600 take into account concerning, first of all, just migration of 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.560 bailing whales in general. So on the reproductive front, yes, 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.600 protection from orcas does seem to be a major factor, 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.080 particularly with gray whales, and there's the additional hypothesis that 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:15.600 the whale calves to survive and grow better in warmer waters. 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.520 It's also argued that it's simply energetically more efficient to 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:23.520 swim to warmer waters than to overwinter up north. There's 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.160 also more visibility and shelter in tropical waters. We talked, 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.880 and this comes back to orcas survival to a large extent, 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.760 we discussed the gray whales ability to seek shallower waters, 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.400 and part of that is that there it sounds like 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.880 they're just more nooks and crannies that the whales may 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.359 venture into to find refuge. Yeah. So, for example, when 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:50.320 gray whales are threatened by orcas, it's been observed that 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.280 they might try to seek shelters, say in kelp beds, 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:57.200 or like in hiding in seaweed, or even in breaking surf, 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.760 which apparently helps obscure their presence. Yeah, and we'll come 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.120 back to some more details about this in a minute. 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.919 The authors here do stress, however, that there's just there's 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:11.480 no one size fits all explanation, especially considering that there 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.480 are various differences in behavior among the baling whales in general. 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.240 For instance, they mentioned that one factor for many baling whales, 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:23.720 again not gray whales specifically, but but other filter feeding whales, 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.799 seems to be that during the summer you have a 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:32.720 stratification of the water column to include a highly photic zone, 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:39.880 resulting in rapid photosynthesis and reproduction of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:45.600 the plant plankton, and these phytoplankton in turn feed the zooplankton, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.680 which of course are the animal plankton, and this generally 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.240 fattens up the entire ecosystem in these waters. But then 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.560 in the winter, cooling temps and strong winds break up 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.840 the stratification, mixing the vertical water column. Phytoplankton can't stay 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.480 near the surfaces easily, there's increasingly less sunlight and prey 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:09.080 availability takes a dive as well. Okay, so the plankton 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.400 scene kind of dries up a little bit. Yeah. Now, 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.800 as we mentioned, and I believe the first episode, gray 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:16.839 whales are of course rather different than a lot of 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.679 the other baling whales, I mean, all the other extent 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:24.720 baling whales, because they're not really going after things like 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:29.039 kelp and zooplankton. No, they're going after those benthic organisms 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.720 like isopods in the sand on the sea floor. So 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:38.479 they're not directly feeding for the most part on plankton. However, 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.800 the benthic organisms down there are still part of the 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.280 food web and are therefore impacted as well by all 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.839 of this. Okay, so if you don't recall we described 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.680 their typical feeding behavior, I think in part one of 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.200 this series where unlike the whales you've probably seen kind 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:56.559 of like zooming around near the surface of the water 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.520 and just like letting water wash into their mouths, filtering 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:02.679 out all of the plankton or the krill or whatever 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.920 with their billing. The gray whales have a habit of 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:11.960 slamming their heads into the sediment on the ocean bottom 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.520 in relatively shallow areas to sort of like scoop up 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.280 a bunch of this sediment and then getting like use 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.400 their billiing to filter the organisms out of it and 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:25.200 eat those. Yeah, exactly like basically scraping one side of 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.880 their face across the seafloor. Now there's another interesting factor 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.120 in all this. So we mentioned in one of the 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.839 previous episodes that gray whales have been observed in recent 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.560 years overwintering in the Arctic and not making the migration 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.160 down south in rare instances. And I don't believe we're 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:47.440 talking about reproductive or currently reproducing females in these cases. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.880 But basically this is a situation where we have to 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.200 consider climate change. Once again. We have to remember that 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.240 climate change has some of its more drastic effects in 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.719 the Arctic. And I was reading an interest in OAA 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.239 paper dealing with some of this, titled Sentinels of Change 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.240 Gray Whales in the Arctic, pointing out that less sea 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.360 ice means more exposed ocean areas and this alone has 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.200 a huge impact on the environment. But they also point 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.680 out the following. So in cold years, what you have 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.880 happening first is a spring bloom of plankton. But in 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:26.040 the early spring, most zooplankton are not yet ready to graze. Meanwhile, 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:32.560 the phytoplankton, the plants digging all that sunlight, they're just 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.599 going crazy, and there's so much of it that the 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.080 zooplankton are in. The zooplankton are not ready to feed 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.120 on it yet, so most of it ends up sinking 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.480 to the bottom. And what happens at the bottom, well, 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.719 that's where the benthic organisms are and they feast on them. 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.080 And again that is what the gray whales are primarily 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.599 going to eat, those creatures down there that just date 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.640 all of this phytoplankton. In warmer years, however, the sea 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.800 ice melts too early. There's not enough light to really 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.800 power up the spring bloom of phytoplank and so the 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:05.080 phytoplankton bloom is delayed and it doesn't really hit until 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.719 of the zooplankton is fully ready to feed, meaning that 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.480 the zooplankton can eat most of it, there's less to 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.600 rain down to the menthic organisms. Okay, so that sounds 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.800 not great for gray whales. That's what it would sound, right, yeah, 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.120 because that's their primary feast down there. But what this 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.720 particular paper stresses is that as warmer years likely continue 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.440 due to climate change, we might see gray whales shift 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:35.640 in their diet. So we mentioned that they're fairly opportunistic, 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.000 so they will do some filter feeding in the upper 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:44.840 portions of the water So if they aren't able to 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.679 get what they would normally get down there at the bottom, 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.080 or it seems like there's more, say zooplankton in the 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.600 upper portion of the water column, then they will eat 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:57.520 that and potentially eat that instead. So it's a situation 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:00.640 where they outline that a couple of things happened. We 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.480 might to see them displaced from their traditional feeding grounds, 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.760 but we also might see a portion of their diet 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.360 shift more in favor of filter feeding upwards in the 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:15.400 water column, eating more zooplankton than would normally make up 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.280 their diet and I think, goodness. I'm trying to remember 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.360 what the percentage was when we talked about it, but 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.920 it's like a huge percentage of their known normal diet 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.360 is those benthic organisms down there in the sand. So 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.400 it's kind of a good news not I don't know 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.120 if it's a good news bading situation, but anyway, it 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.640 speaks to these organisms have been around for a long time, 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.079 and part of their ability to survive has been their 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.520 ability to make reasonable adaptations. Yes, and I guess that 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.400 brings us back to the issue of the migration, because 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.960 what we're talking about right now is primarily what's happening 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.440 in their feeding grounds in the Arctic waters. But that's 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.040 only half of the story. That's really fatten up up north, 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.920 especially when we're talking about this population of the Eastern 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.800 Pacific gray whales. The other half of the story is reproduction, 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.400 which involves a journey south. That's right, and this is 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.640 quite a journey for the gray whales. The distance between 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.000 their summer feeding grounds and their winter breeding grounds can 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.480 exceed twenty thousand kilometers. That's something like twelve four hundred 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.640 and twenty seven miles. Now, it's worth discussing again again 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:23.200 These are not deep ocean whales, and that makes sense 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.480 given their diet. They primarily stick to a shallow continental 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:31.160 shelf waters. They stick reasonably close to the coast, and 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.040 therefore we see that reflected also in the way they 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.680 migrate between these two waters. They're not making a bee 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:40.080 line from one area to the next. Their journey tends 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:44.680 to be more coastal, with some alterations depending on exactly 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.199 what their circumstances are. Now, we mentioned that there used 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:52.120 to be a population of North Atlantic gray whales, and 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:56.920 it's thought that they would have fed around Newfoundland, the 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:01.240 Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Iceland, and Europe's North Sea. And 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.960 it's thought that they would have found winter breeding refuges 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.320 somewhere along the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas here 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.080 in the States, as well as uncertain spots along the 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.600 coast of Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Now, this population was 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.720 essentially extinct by the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.079 do at the very least in large part to whaling, 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:28.320 if not largely to whaling or entirely to whaling. Interestingly enough, 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.600 there have been proposals to try and reintroduce North Pacific 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:33.960 gray whales into this region to restore the population. I 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.840 think we mentioned this previously. And there's also the possibility 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:41.120 that they may recolonize the area themselves as in the 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.800 future as sea ice melts and opens up these waters 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:48.080 to them once again. So the North Pacific population potentially 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:53.959 recolonizing the North Atlantic, but that's kind of hypothetical. We're 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.719 not sure exactly how that would pan out, though, I 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.559 guess it's always possible, because occasionally you do find whales 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.040 like way outside of their their normal ranges, right, They 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.760 just kind of pop up in strange places that that 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.480 you don't usually find them. Yeah, there are a couple 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.000 of outstanding examples of that. Did Carboning points out a 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.200 single gray whale was sighted off the coast of Israel 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.000 in twenty ten, and in twenty thirteen one was seen 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.160 off the coast of Namibia, and it's uncertain exactly why 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:22.680 in both of these cases. Hammond at all point out 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.840 that their origin was was almost certainly the North Pacific 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.680 population in both cases though, Yeah, that's great. How would 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.240 they get that far away? Yeah, I mean, I guess 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:34.200 we know they can swim away as due to their 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:38.200 to their habitual migrations. But yeah, you want to know 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.520 the story of that wandering whale. Yeah. Now, now coming 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:48.400 back to that now extinct North Atlantic population. Quick Outlander 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.320 note out for everyone out there. I was reminded of this, 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.480 My wife reminded maybe that we had watched this. But 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:59.280 the television series adaptation of Outlander has a scene set 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.400 on the coast of South Carolina, and again this is 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.480 about time travelers going back in time, in which two 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.679 of our time traveling characters remark about some whale activity 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.240 off the coast and how they wouldn't have seen this 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:14.440 in their original timelines or in the original times and 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.040 the footage they use in the show, I had to 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.800 check it. It's not gray whales that they're they're using here, 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:20.920 I believe, but it certainly made me think of the 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:22.880 scenario that you're like, Yeah, if you went back in 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:27.760 time before human whaling activity seemingly had a chance to 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:33.679 just drastically alter the ecosystem in the Atlantic, you would 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:36.760 have potentially seen these great whales, Like it would have 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.640 been possible for me to see gray whales in my 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:45.040 home state of Georgia, potentially without having to travel to 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.600 the other side of the continent and then to another country. 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.080 And when is this set an outlander? Is this like 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:55.719 early eighteenth century or something. Yeah, the initial transplant I 0:12:55.760 --> 0:13:00.960 think is from nineteen forty five to seventeen forty three. Okay, Yeah, 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:06.040 and certainly, as we'll discuss, given the population changes in 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.120 the gray whale at nineteen forty five, it was a 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.840 bad time for the gray whale anyway. This also reminded 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.400 me of something that our previous guest on the show. This, 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.560 I think was while you were out Joe, I talked 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.800 with Ryan Tucker Jones, author of the book Read Leviathan, 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.840 which is largely about Soviet whaling in the Industrial Age, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.120 but it also discusses just the history of whaling in general, 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.199 and it's it's a fascinating look at like why the 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:37.280 Soviet Union got increasingly into whaling during the Industrial Age 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.160 and the impact of it, what was also learned scientifically 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.640 from it. And there's a there's a bit in that. 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.040 This is just from the introduction where he writes, quote, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.560 as someone who grew up in Oregon and California in 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.880 the nineteen eighties, I experienced the ocean at the whale's 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.720 lowest point, an ocean that had been created by the 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.960 Soviet Union as much as anyone. The history of Soviet 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.960 whaling belongs to anyone who looks out to the sea 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.640 and sees nothing. Oh yeah, it's there. Are a lot 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.840 of really haunting moments in the book and just a 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:10.760 lot of great details. Certainly go back and listen to 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.160 that interview for more or or just check out the book. 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:15.559 Just a reminder that the gray whale in particular was 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.160 hunted near the point of extinction by humans. We slaughtered 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:20.920 them on their migration routes. We slaughtered them in their 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.760 northern feeding grounds, and we slaughtered them in their breeding lagoons. 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.960 They were afforded full protection in nineteen forty six. Those 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.280 Soviet whalers took three hundred and twenty hundred scientific permit 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:33.720 in nineteen sixty, along with another one hundred and thirty 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:38.800 eight illegally. These figures according to Carwadene in Carveding Just 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:41.000 in case you don't remember, I haven't cited him in 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.080 this episode, but that's Mark Carwadine's Handbook of Whales, Dolphins 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.840 and Porpoises of the World. But adding more context from 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:48.960 Jones here, he notes that by the end of the 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.800 classical age of whaling, so the pre industrial sailing age 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.040 of whaling, the sort of moby Dick era of whaling. Quote, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.840 humans mainly Americans, had reduced Pacific gray whales from around 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.600 twenty four thousand to a remnant population of two thousand. 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.720 Atlantic gray whales were entirely extinct, and so from what 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.680 I understand today, Atlantic gray whales they are gone for 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.680 all we know. And then there are the two populations. 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.400 There is the Western Pacific gray whale, which lives along 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:24.720 the eastern coast of the Asian mainland. That population is, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.720 from what we can tell, in pretty rough shape today. 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.520 I don't remember how many individuals it's down to, but 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:34.000 it's estimated to be pretty low, whereas the Eastern Pacific 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:40.680 gray whale along the coast of North America is doing okay. Yeah. 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.680 And in terms of the classical and industrial whaling, like, 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.160 certain species were impacted more in different in different phases. 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:54.160 So the gray whales were slower and they tended to 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.720 be closer to shore, so in many respects they were 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.040 easier to catch during that classic age of whaling. Though 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.360 like we mentioned, they they were the devilfish. They could 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:03.640 certainly put up a hell of a fight as well. 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.840 But as the age of industrial whaling brought many of 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.400 the faster species like blue whales and fins into the 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.080 sort of whaling fold, here those whales had fewer defenses 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.360 against whalers. They'd really only ever had to contend with 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:22.160 orca jones rides. But meanwhile, in the age of industrialized 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:26.320 Soviet whaling, quote, gray whales were particularly tricky. Soviet whalers 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:29.680 noted that, despite being slow, the gray was the only 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.200 whale and he quotes about which no rules of catching 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.640 have been established. Only on rare occasions did gray's move 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:40.560 in a straight line, instead usually swimming in zigzags, making 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.160 movements to one or the other side without determined direction. 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.560 Science the Soviets hoped might help establish some or other 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:53.280 pattern to its movement. I wonder if the ways that 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:59.400 different whales reacted to threats by human whalers was affected 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:04.800 by the different strategies these species had for dealing with orca. Obviously, 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.320 the threats posed by human whalers and orca are going 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.760 to be of a very different shape and nature, but 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.760 maybe some anti predator strategies aimed at orca were just 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.320 also just also happened to buy coincidence be better at 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.639 evading human whalers. Yeah, it sounds likely because certainly the end, 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.760 one of the things about the industrial ages, you just 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.040 had faster ships and they could keep up with with 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.440 whales and they could get those whales that were further out. 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.960 So gray whales in the North Pacific were greatly reduced 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:35.960 by this time, and those that remained even were even 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:39.680 harder to acquire. Jones also notes that by nineteen thirty six, 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.040 the average size of gray whales captured was greatly decreased, 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.280 and the reasoning hero was quote the population was no 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.480 longer seeing its members to adulthood, because again, these are 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.240 creatures that can live I think upwards of late like 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.720 eighty years or so if I'm remembering correctly, and they're 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.600 just they that's how impacted the population was now today. 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.200 Caring notes that while gray whales in general have greatly rebounded, 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.240 and like, if you look them up online, you'll quickly 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:07.560 see that they're listed as least concern as far as 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.640 conservation status goes, which is which is great news. That's 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.119 a heck of a comeback story. But they're still threatened 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.399 by oil and gas developments in the Arctic and and 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.280 declining sea ice. Other threats include entanglement in fishing gear, 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:24.560 occasional illegal harpooning, chemical pollution, noise pollution, ship collision, and 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.480 the expansion of sea salt production in Baja California. In 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.600 my own experience down there in Baja California, I mean, 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:33.720 the lagoon that we ventured out too in order to 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.800 see the whales was surrounded pretty much only by salt 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.399 industry projects, so I can understand where that would be 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.600 a concern. Carveding also notes that while the Eastern North 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.439 Pacific group is doing great at the moment, there was 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:48.960 you to see some fluctuations. So there was a six 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.320 hundred and fifty one whale die off in nineteen ninety 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:54.879 nine through twenty eleven, and that would have been like 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:59.359 a twenty three percent population die off, though this doesn't 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:04.560 necessary daily reflect long term survivability according to the NAA, 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.840 and you can have big swings in population like that 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:13.320 and it doesn't necessarily speak to how the species is 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:17.480 doing long term. But that Western North Pacific population, like 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.480 we said earlier, this one, according to Carvedin, is quote, 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.359 one of the most endangered whale populations in the world. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:25.520 So even though the species at whole is doing better, 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:30.399 we're mostly looking at the Eastern North Pacific group as 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.320 opposed to the Western North Pacific group. Again, to whatever extent, 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.280 that's a true separate population because we do see overlap 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:49.600 in their breeding and behavior. So getting more back into 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.639 just the migration patterns here that are pretty fascinating. We 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.160 have the North Pacific gray whale to contend with here, 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.600 and you have these two basic groups. The Eastern North 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.000 Pacific grays migrate between those Baja California breeding lagoons and 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:07.320 summer feeding grounds and the bearing chuck Chee and Beaufort seats, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.520 though this range is expanding as the ice opens up again. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.679 The Western North Pacific grays migrate between winter breeding grounds 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.720 somewhere in the South China Sea to summer feeding grounds 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:22.800 in the Sea of Okoksk and parts of Kamchatka, and 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.000 there is some mixing of these groups in both the 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.679 summer and winter. Now, the Eastern North Pacific grays have 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.119 the longer of the two migrations, spanning up to fifty 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.280 degrees of latitude according to Carwadine, and the shortest return 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:37.600 journey for these whales is about twelve thousand kilometers or 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.560 about seven thousand, four hundred and fifty six miles. He 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.320 adds that the longest documented migration of any mammal was 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.480 a female gray whale with a twenty two thousand, five 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.679 hundred and eleven kilometer round trip between sakal And Island, 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.360 Russia and Baja California, Mexico. So that would have been 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.199 again that we're talking about how there is overlap in 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:01.919 the ranges of the eastern and western. Now note that 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.160 there's also apparently a two hundred strong Pacific coast feeding 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:07.520 group that doesn't migrate all the way up to the 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.639 Arctic at all, but feeds off a coastal area stretching 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.720 between northern California and southeast Alaska. And there's another group 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:17.919 that feeds im Puget Sound. So all right, here are 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:21.080 the stages of the migration, and in covering these stages, 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:22.560 we're going to hit on some of the things we've 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.720 discussed already, but try and keep it reasonably. It's the 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:29.199 sink here. But first we'll start with leaving the Arctic. Okay, 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.560 they've been feeding. The whales have been feeding up north, 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:34.840 and the signal of the head south seems to be 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:37.679 a combination of the formation of sea ice and the 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.960 decreasing day length. Apparently ninety percent leave the bearing sea 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:46.520 through intimac Pass on a sixty day journey to Baja California, 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.000 a near term mother's leave first, then other adults, then 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.720 immature females, and then immature males. The last are on 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.240 their way south while the first group is already on 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.880 their way back north. Again. Oh, that's interesting. The orca 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.880 threat is far less during this part of the cycle. 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.679 Again referring back to the the orcas. The orcas are 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:11.320 are are intelligent and cunning in their hunting of these dangerous, uh, 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:16.240 these fearsome prey species. So at this point, the whales 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.760 have been feeding all summer long, so they're they're they're 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.160 fueled up, they're they're ready to fight, and their their 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.720 calves are are even larger than they were previously. So 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.359 everybody's stronger, everyone's well fed. It's not to say the 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:35.200 orcas won't feed or won't attempt to acquire prey, but 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:38.359 this is not the optimal time to do it. And 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:41.200 a reminder of what we talked about last time, uh, 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:43.440 this would be related to the fact that orcas are 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:47.199 going to be mostly trying to prey on newborn whale 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:51.080 calves for their return journey coming up the migratory corridor 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:55.840 back to the feeding grounds, because a healthy adult gray 0:22:55.880 --> 0:23:00.000 whale is a pretty hard target, and orcas are observed 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.280 to not never, but very rarely try to attack a 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:05.840 healthy adult. Usually what they're trying to do is separate 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:09.240 a young calf and and prey on it. Yeah, exactly. 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.240 So they make their way south, and then it's lagoon time, 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:15.360 and there are three main areas that they gather here. 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:17.679 The exact amount of time spent in the lagoon's berries 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:21.840 depending on sex and the presence of calves. Females with 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.040 young cows just going to hang out far longer because 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:28.200 you know, they need to bring get that that young 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:31.280 one up to wait up to strength before they head 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:34.040 back out again. Whereas like a male that's come down 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:36.440 to breed, you know, obviously he doesn't have to stay 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:38.840 as long's he can head back up as soon as 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:41.920