The Gray Whale Advocate Newsletter

Contents, both editorial and photographic are:

copyright 2002

Keith E. Jones

Hola amigos y amigas:

Before getting into this month’s brief speculative newsletter that deals with possible origins of the gray whale migration, I have a point of business to mention. This season Baja Jones Adventure Travel has one intern position open. The time frame is mid-January to mid-March. The right person will be enthusiastic about the marine environment, without being pedantic. The lucky person who joins Baja Jones will live a two month experience that few people ever have the opportunity to experience. If you know of some one or are yourself interested, simply email me at keith@greywhale.com .

Although I’m particularly busy right now with my non-whale watching job, I’m writing this newsletter because the first gray whales have now started to make their way south. I too feel the mysterious yearning that pulls migratory creatures south as the days grow shorter. October is a time of transition. Summer has ended. The beginning of animal migrations south, from butterflies to whales, is imminent. Soon ducks and geese will begin their flights south.

The gray whales are presently eating with gusto. Attempting to store away maximum calories for the long journey ahead of them. Some of these whales will be traveling south for the first time.

Those who were babies just a few months ago, will return to Baja as 30 foot juveniles. I always wonder about these immature juveniles. What strange force attracts them? What undiscovered phenomenon lures them away from tons of food. What compels them to leave their feeding grounds and begin a round trip journey that will take nearly half a year to complete.

Unlike older, physically mature whales, these youngsters don’t have the ability to mate yet. When I see these juveniles in the lagoon (Laguna Ojo de Liebre), they are usually alone. Occasionally I might see a juvenile male chasing a larger, mature female. But that is rare and probably what I actually see is an older, 3, 4 or 5 year old who is feeling the hormonal rush for the first time.

Whatever the attraction, right now as I write this, the whales are gradually beginning to move south. Next month we will see the first gray whales off the coast of California. By the first of December, Mexican panga fishermen will begin seeing gray whales off shore.

There is much speculation about the gray whale migration. Why do the whales do this? How did such a difficult and dangerous routine develop in the first place? I have a theory. I hope that this theory will become the topic for further research by whale scientists and students.

In prehistoric times, before the ice age, the gray whale population was spread across a broad portion of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The world climate was warmer. The seashore was further inland, with salt marsh and protected coves scattered from north to south in an entirely different pattern than now exists.

The colder food laden northern waters comprised a smaller territory than is the case today. The protected areas that allow gray whale mothers to give birth and to nurture their babies in the crucial first two months of life were closer to the feeding grounds. Possibly adequate food was available offshore adjacent to the protected coves and salt marshes.

As the ice cap slowly expanded southward, the shorelines changed forever. This didn’t happen in a day or a century. It occurred over millions of years.

Along with this geographic climatic evolution, changes took place in the animal world as well. Gray whale food sources must have shifted. Colder oxygen rich Arctic waters came to support more small animal life. Gradually the Arctic Ocean and high North Pacific became the feeding ground.

During this transition period the more northerly bays and salt marshes simply became too cold to afford the same high survival rate as do warmer protected waters. Gradually year by year, spanning a period of millions of years, the nursery grounds and the feeding grounds separated and became two distinct areas.

Those mother whales who went further south to give birth, returned more frequently to the Arctic with a healthy baby at their side. Over thousands of years, those whales who traveled further south to give birth were more successful in reproducing. The processes of natural selection and species evolution are gradual and span thousands and tens of thousands of years. This is what I theorize to be the origin and the cause of the gray whale migration.

Superficially the 5000 or 6000 mile migration south seems to be a suicidal rush away from the feed trough. Many whales, dozens to hundreds, die each year from the stress placed on their bodies by the migration. Spending four to six months without any significant food source trims thousands of pounds of blubber from a full grown gray whale. Dozens are found dead from what appears to be malnutrition. But when we look deeper, it is clear that while the old, the weak and those individuals not intelligent enough to find a good food source do die, many more survive each year. Hundreds of babies are born and most of these babies survive the critical first two months of life. The time when they are at their most vulnerable. The time when the mother is least able to protect herself and her baby from predators such as groups of Orcas (killer whales).

The high survival rate of the gray whale baby is the reason that this is the only large whale species to rebound from the brink of extinction. The mother whales of other species must struggle to protect their newborn from the hazards around them in the open ocean. The gray whale mothers can simply lay at rest, their newborn baby riding quietly on their pectoral fin. Thanks to the remote and protected lagoons of Baja this species has a nursery area unique among the large cetaceans.

Remember, not all whale watching guides are equal. Yes we all have read the same books. When you finally decide that you must experience this for yourself, travel with the company whose sole purpose is to bring individuals into personal contact with the gray whales. Because we believe that through education comes understanding and compassion.

That’s all for now.

Keith (baja) Jones

Baja Jones Adventure Travel

and coming soon:

www.whalesforkids.org

www.whales4kids.org