94 Gray Whales Dead, Calf Pairs at Eight in Baja

Karmactive Staff

Along Baja California’s coast, the marine giants are dying. This is an event of extreme shock since there seemed to be recovery from the 2018-2023 “unusual mortality rate”

Photo Source - Taylen Lundequam (Pexels)

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There seems to be worrying trends noticeable in the migration patterns of these mammals. They have one of the longest migration, around 12,000 miles and this too seems to be disrupted in recent times.

Photo Source - Elianne Dipp (Pexels)

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Even in San Ignacia, where most wintering whales gather only eight mother calf pairs showed up, this is a shockingly small number, the lowest ever recorded.

Photo Source - Josh Withers (Pexels)

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It is to be noted that these whales have no sign of physical injury such as boat strikes, shark bites, or fishing gear entanglement like they usually do.

Photo Source - Jeticia Golubov (Pexels)

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Scientists were shaken at the sudden upsurge in deaths among gray whales, with approximately 70 whales discovered dead along the pacific coasts of the U.S. about early days of 2025.

Photo source:- NOAA digital collection (PDM 1.0)

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Additional strandings have also been confirmed further to the north along British Columbia, Canada.

Photo Source - Mapgrid (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Many of the stranded whales looked emaciated, suggesting that hunger could be the cause of their death.

Photo source:- Brocken Inaglory (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Poor feeding conditions from which gray whales migrate back again to feeding ground is presumed to be one of the major reasons.

Photo source:- Getty (CCO 1.0)

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According to this, the NOAA declared it an unusual mortality event.

Photo Source - Badseed (PDM 1.0)

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NOAA has since directed its resources toward a more detailed examination of the causes and scope of the die-off.

Photo Source - NOAA (PDM 1.0)

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Such earlier events pulled down gray whale populations to nearly half, reducing them from 27,000 to 14,500.

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Photo source:- Getty (CCO 1.0)

Scientists link recurring mortality events to changing arctic sea ice and shifting prey availabilities.

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Photo source:- Pink floyd88 a (CC BY-SA 2.0)