![\"map](\"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/map-gray-whale-hunt.png\")
<\/a>Eastern North Pacific gray whales spend their winters in the warm calving lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, where they give birth and breed. They migrate to the food-rich waters of the Arctic for summer feeding. Some whales do not complete the full migration and stop to feed in places along the route, such as Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia. Map by Mark Garrison<\/p><\/div>\n
Some animals visit for only one season, but many reappear annually, and mothers that have themselves grown up feeding along the coast bring their calves to the same locations, apparently instilling memories of the local ecosystem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe calves return for years, and possibly all their lives, to the location their mother brought them when they were very young and where they were weaned,\u201d Darling says.<\/p>\n
The calves are weaned in midsummer and then left alone, often hanging out with other calves for the rest of the summer and fall. While some are assumed to join the southward migration of the main herd as it passes Clayoquot Sound in December, others stay through the winter.<\/p>\n
Mature females are key to the tendency to stay in coastal feeding areas because they are the ones that have the experience finding prey. That information is passed down to their offspring, says Darling, who, assisted by a photo-identification program, can identify many of the seasonally resident whales.<\/p>\n
He recognizes Saddle, a male who was in Clayoquot Sound when Darling\u2019s study began in the 1970s; Blackjack, a female who has visited the area for 45 years; Elvis, a female who has had three calves since 1993; and Collage, a grandmother, first recorded in 1975, whose daughter and grand-calf also sometimes return to the sound.<\/p>\n
<\/a>A gray whale called Saddle is a longtime summer resident of Clayoquot Sound. Researcher Jim Darling has photographed the whale in Clayoquot Sound 20 times between 1974 and 2019. Individual whales can be identified by the distinct markings on their backs. Photo by Jim Darling<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cThis is a community of whales. They know each other, in some cases for decades. They know how to sustain themselves here\u2014this is their home. They are not just a random aggregation of whales that don\u2019t happen to migrate all the way north,\u201d Darling says.<\/p>\n
A cross-border controversy is brewing that could put some of the whales that break off from the main migration, identified as the Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG), directly in the harpoon sights of the Makah Tribe, based in Neah Bay, who have applied to hunt up to 25 whales over 10 years. (The Makah is the only tribe in the United States with an explicit treaty right to hunt whales. They legally killed one whale in 1999 and illegally killed another in 2007.) The proposal for the renewed hunt is being supported by the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has asked an administrative law judge for a waiver to the Marine Mammal Protection Act\u2014legislation that protects marine mammals in US waters from lethal activities.<\/p>\n
Hearings into the waiver application, held in late 2019, wrapped up after NMFS, the Makah, and groups opposing the hunt presented evidence. The public comment period closed March 16, and the next step is for the judge to make a recommendation on whether the hunt should go ahead.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Makah, and their close relatives the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, have a long and rich tradition of whaling for subsistence and cultural purposes. The hunt persisted into the early 20th century as this photo from 1910 attests. Photo by Book Worm\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p><\/div>\n
But while the United States is considering whether to allow the hunt, in Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) recommended to the environment minister in October 2018 that the PCFG should be designated as endangered<\/a> under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).<\/p>\n Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) will ask for feedback on listing the whales later this year. If the recommendation to classify them as endangered is accepted, the population and their critical habitats will receive additional protection, and a recovery strategy will be put into action, says DFO communications advisor Lara Sloan.<\/p>\n That would mean that if the Makah hunt is approved in the United States, the very whales that are protected in Canada could be hunted just across the border.<\/p>\n Differences in how to treat the whales center on data interpretation\u2014whether the whales should be regarded as a separate stock, which would give them extra protection, or be included with the overall eastern North Pacific gray whale population. US scientists view the PCFG as an aggregation rather than a stock, so deem a separate management plan unnecessary.<\/p>\n A successful hunt, taking the maximum allowable whales, would reduce the eastern North Pacific gray whale population by only about 0.009 percent a year, said Chris Yates, NMFS assistant regional administrator for protected resources, in a declaration to the hearings.<\/p>\n However, critics say that whether the PCFG is considered an aggregation or a unique stock, killing one whale out of 250 would have a significant effect.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most faithful whales to our area will be the most punished,\u201d said Margaret Owens of the Peninsula Citizens for the Protection of Whales in a rebuttal to Yates\u2019s declaration.<\/p>\n Gray whales that take up summer residence in coastal areas go to where there is available food, including crustaceans such as mysids, crab larvae, amphipods, and ghost shrimp. Gray whales are also known to scoop up bottom sediments to gather food as this whale is doing in the shallow water of Grice Bay in Clayoquot Sound. Photo by Flip Nicklin\/Minden Pictures<\/p><\/div>\n Darling and Timothy Frasier, an associate professor of biology at Saint Mary\u2019s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, conducted key research on the PCFG that helped convince COSEWIC to make the endangered status recommendation. Darling and Frasier have no doubt that the PCFG is a distinct group that acts differently from the main population and shows genetic differences, so should be managed separately.<\/p>\n More than a decade ago, Darling and Frasier began to investigate the genetics of these whales that seemed to show an affinity for the west coast of Vancouver Island. The pair published two research papers, in 2011<\/a> and 2013<\/a>, which found that the whales using the coastal feeding areas possessed a unique genetic signature in their mitochondrial DNA.<\/p>\n Mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother and nuclear DNA is inherited from both parents. Although the PCFG whales are known to mix and mate with the main population, as is evident in their nuclear DNA, their preference for returning to coastal feeding areas is a behavior that shows up in their mitochondrial DNA signature, Frasier explains.<\/p>\n The mitochondrial DNA in the PCFG \u201crepresent whales who learned about this feeding area, instead of the Arctic, from their mothers and then passed that along to their offspring generation after generation,\u201d Frasier says. \u201c[It] reflects the maternally-based knowledge transfer of migratory routes and feeding ground locations.\u201d<\/p>\n NMFS, however, has chosen to base its decision on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from all <\/em>whales using these coastal feeding areas\u2014including those that stay for only one season\u2014instead of looking exclusively at whales that regularly return.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you lump them all together and take all the whales that have ever been seen in the PCFG area and compare them to the rest of the population, that [mitochondrial DNA] signal gets diluted because you\u2019re including a lot of individuals that don\u2019t really qualify,\u201d Frasier says. \u201cThen, of course, you are going to come to different conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n After Darling and Frasier completed their initial research, it was presented at a 2010 International Whaling Commission meeting. NMFS then did its own study<\/a>, which yielded similar results. The matter of how to treat the PCFG seemed to be settled\u2014to the point that it brought a 2012 NMFS assessment of the impact of a Makah hunt to a halt<\/a>.<\/p>\n A gray whale cow and her calf feed near the kelp in Clayoquot Sound. Photo by Jim Darling<\/p><\/div>\n Darling is baffled that, after accepting the research a few years ago, NMFS is now questioning the extent of the genetic and behavioral differences.<\/p>\n \u201cI really do not understand it\u00a0\u2026\u00a0it is so inexplicable if you are just looking at the biology,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Current NMFS views are based on a report<\/a> from a 2012 task force and agency-only workshop, convened to review North Pacific gray whale data. Workshop participants looked at all whales using the coastal feeding areas, including those temporarily recruited from outside the PCFG, and concluded there was insufficient evidence to classify the group as a separate stock, and that research should continue.<\/p>\n Donna Wieting, director of NOAA\u2019s Office of Protected Resources, cites the report in a 2018 letter to the Pacific Scientific Review Group (which advises NOAA on the status of marine mammals) saying, \u201cthere remains a substantial level of uncertainty in the strength of the lines of evidence supporting demographic independence of the PCFG.\u201d<\/p>\n That view was echoed at the 2019 hearings on the renewed Makah hunt by NMFS wildlife research biologist David Weller.<\/p>\n He noted in a submission that when samples from PCFG whales were compared with whales sampled in one of the Mexican wintering lagoons, the 2012 task force found \u201csmall but significant\u201d differences in mitochondrial DNA (inherited from the mother), but no significant differences in analyses of the nuclear DNA (inherited from both parents).<\/p>\n \u201cCalves likely follow their mothers to feeding areas and to some extent they return to those feeding areas in subsequent years. There was no evidence, however, that whales that frequent one feeding area are reproductively isolated from whales that frequent other feeding areas,\u201d Weller wrote in his declaration.<\/p>\n Other scientists are questioning how the decision was made and want to see a wider-ranging discussion.<\/p>\n Research biologist John Calambokidis, founder of Cascadia Research Collective, based in Olympia, Washington, has conducted extensive research on eastern North Pacific gray whales.<\/p>\n \u201cFor management purposes, I absolutely do think [the PCFG] warrants treatment as a distinct group, based on both the photo ID information and the genetic data that has come out of two different studies,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n A gray whale spyhops in the waters of Clayoquot Sound. Photo by Flip Nicklin\/Minden Pictures<\/p><\/div>\n Calambokidis questions the task force\u2013workshop method of deciding the status of the PCFG and the conclusion that, as there was insufficient evidence, further research was required.<\/p>\n \u201cI think NMFS should reconsider their status on the PCFG, especially because the workshop was inconclusive and there is now more information,\u201d he says. He\u2019d also like to see the decision revisited by a wider group of scientists.<\/p>\n D. J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute, a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC, that is presenting at the hearings, believes the separate stock argument is compelling, and he also wants to see NMFS call another meeting of scientists to look at the evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cBut they shouldn\u2019t limit it to just their scientists; they need to invite outside scientists who do most of the research on these whales,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Oddly, although NMFS does not consider the PCFG whales a separate stock, in an apparent concession to documented differences, it has proposed restrictions to protect the group and a small population of western North Pacific gray whales if the hunt goes ahead. (Some of the western population, a group once considered extinct, were recently tagged and found in areas used by eastern North Pacific gray whales<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Over a 10-year time frame, for instance, no more than 16 hunting strikes could be on PCFG whales, with a limit of eight strikes on females, and the hunt would be stopped if the number of PCFG whales falls below 192 animals.<\/p>\n In even-numbered years, the hunt would take place during the migration season, reducing the risk to PCFG whales, as the entire herd of 27,000 animals would be passing through the area. In odd-numbered years, the hunt would be held during the summer feeding season to reduce the risk to western North Pacific whales. But, inevitably, that timing would increase the risk of striking any PCFG whales feeding in the area.<\/p>\n \u201cTo say they will hunt in the summer is absurd. That means the only whales that are present are the small population of local animals, which [COSEWIC] say are endangered,\u201d Darling says.<\/p>\n If the hunt is approved, in the heat of the moment it will be largely impossible to differentiate between a PCFG whale and the rest of the herd before shooting, says Frasier.<\/p>\n \u201cA theoretical option is to have someone who knows the whales out there and say, \u2018That\u2019s not one of our residents,\u2019 but, to me, that\u2019s not really workable,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n So far, DFO has not been part of the debate on the status of the PCFG, but that is likely to change if the government approves the SARA designation after public consultations that could be held this fall.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the recommendations are accepted, then DFO will automatically receive the mandate to provide science advice on these units, including the designation of critical habitat,\u201d says Thomas Doniol-Valcroze, head of DFO\u2019s cetacean research program.<\/p>\n Adding to the uncertainty over the status and classification of the whales is that the entire eastern North Pacific gray whale population is undergoing an unusual mortality event<\/a> (UME) with 326 gray whales found dead along the coast from Mexico to Alaska in 2019 and up to May 12, 2020. Scientists estimate that the carcasses found probably represent only between 3.9 and 13 percent of the whales that have died.<\/p>\n Although the current UME is not over, NMFS points to the population\u2019s recovery after a 1999\u20132000 UME<\/a> that killed up to one-quarter of the eastern North Pacific gray whales as evidence of their resilience. This is despite the fact that the cause of the previous UME was undetermined.<\/p>\n The cause of the current UME is similarly unclear. Although some whales have shown evidence of emaciation, findings are not consistent, according to NOAA, which is assembling a team of scientists to review data and determine the next step. Climate change, a lack of adequate food in the Arctic, and a theory that the gray whale population has reached carrying capacity\u2014the maximum number of animals for its habitat\u2014are among the considerations. Recent research suggests ship strikes and predation by killer whales<\/a> may also be to blame.<\/p>\n While the scientists wrangle over the outstanding questions of how to classify and manage the gray whales, and how and whether to insert the current UME into the equation, other groups question the revived Makah hunt\u2014a right granted the nation in 1855\u2014on the grounds of animal rights or other more philosophical concerns.<\/p>\n For Darling, though, the focus should remain on science, not politics. This is not about whether whaling should occur, he says, it\u2019s about getting the biology correct so the impacts and consequences of a hunt and other activities that affect the population are clearly understood.<\/p>\n NMFS is currently preparing a supplemental environmental impact statement. If the recommendation from the judge is for the hunt to proceed, the decision will then go to the NMFS assistant administrator, followed by a 20-day public comment period.<\/p>\n If the hunt is given the go-ahead by the assistant administrator, regulations will be finalized and discussions held with the Makah on the particulars of the hunt.<\/p>\n Whichever way the decision goes, the battle is unlikely to be over, as litigation will probably follow, says Schubert.<\/p>\n The gray whales are currently on their northward migration, and as they make their way up the west coast of North America, they face the uncertainties of a changing ocean. Scientists are also watching to see whether the number of mystery deaths will increase.<\/p>\n This year, the whales will not have to contend with Makah harpoons and rifles off Neah Bay, but there is no guarantee that the hunt won\u2019t become another hazard they face during future migrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For almost five decades, biologist Jim Darling has studied the gray whales that regularly return to forage in the waters off the west coast of Canada instead of completing the lengthy migration undertaken by the main herd. Approximately 27,000 eastern <\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n