West Coast whale population recovers 5 years after hundreds washed up ashore
Source: ABC News/AP
April 1, 2024, 2:27 PM
SEATTLE -- Federal researchers indicate the gray whale population along the West Coast is showing signs of recovery five years after hundreds washed up dead on beaches from Alaska to Mexico.
The increase in population numbers comes after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association determined in November that the “unusual mortality event” that began in 2019 has ended. “It’s nice to be able to report some good news the last couple of years,” Aimee Lang, a research biologist with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, told The Seattle Times.
The agency has estimated the total number of eastern north Pacific Gray whales to be between 17,400 to 21,300, an increase from an estimated 13,200 to 15,960 whales last year.
The population began to decline after numbering about 27,000 whales in 2016. The mortality event hits its peak between Dec. 17, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2020, the agency said. It involved 690 dead gray whales that washed ashore from Alaska to Mexico. Of those, 347 were in the U.S., 316 in Mexico and 27 in Canada.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/west-coast-whale-population-recovers-5-years-after-108717603
Link to NOAA Fisheries REPORT - Closure of 2019–2023 Eastern North Pacific Gray Whale Unusual Mortality Event
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