Our director reflects on California’s gray whales as once-touted success story of marine protection — rescued from near-extinction through laws like the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the global whaling ban — now facing a new crisis. Scientists are observing large numbers of emaciated whales along the West Coast, linked to climate-driven changes in their Arctic feeding grounds. Retreating sea ice is diminishing the under-ice algae that feed amphipods (tiny crustaceans), the whales’ primary food source, leading to starvation, lower reproductive success and more deaths. Because of this, NOAA has declared a long-running “unusual mortality event,” with more than 1,200 strandings from 2019–2025 — far above historical averages — and record-low calf counts in recent years.

With food scarcity forcing whales into crowded estuaries like San Francisco Bay in search of calories, they face added dangers such as fatal ship strikes. Long-time whale observers also report far fewer mother-calf pairs in Mexican breeding lagoons, and even predation by orcas on young whales that in healthier years would be protected by larger adult populations. The author argues that the ongoing decline underscores broader consequences of climate change on marine ecosystems and warns that failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions threatens not only gray whales but other species dependent on a warming ocean.

Read more on the LA Times.