A pod of gray whales that summers off the Oregon coast is dwindling, and the young whales are on track to be about 5 feet shorter than their older counterparts, a new study finds.
In total, more than 14,000 gray whales roam the northeast Pacific, which stretches from Mexico to Alaska, and most spend their summers in the Arctic. The new study focused on just 200 whales that remain in the warm, shallow waters off the Oregon coast and tend to be in worse shape than other gray whales.
Researchers at Oregon State University used drones to monitor these whales and assess changes in their size over time. They found that while a whale born in the year 2000 would be expected to grow to about 12 meters long, a whale born in 2020 would be about 10 meters long. The researchers said the change in size is dramatic, comparable to the average American woman’s reduction from 5 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 6 inches in the space of just 20 years.
O to studypublished in Biology of Global Changeechoes other research that found that many fish, birdsIt is amphibians are decreasing and that climate change could be playing a role. One explanation is that smaller creatures deal better with high temperatures. Another is that, in a hotter and more turbulent world, some animals cannot eat enough and, therefore, do not grow to full size.
For gray whales, the drop in size coincided with a change in updrafts, which draw nutrients from the depths and deposit them in shallow waters along the coast. With climate change, researchers said, winds are changing and the ocean is getting warmer, although it’s not yet clear what effect this might be having on upwelling.
Scientists have warned that a drop in size poses a threat to the long-term survival of Oregon’s gray whales. Shorter whales tend to have smaller fat reserves, which means they have less energy stored for lean times. Experts fear that these shorter whales have a harder time recovering from boat collisions and other injuries, and may have difficulty reproducing.
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