The Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG) of gray whales, consisting of around 200 individuals frequenting the Pacific Northwest coast, has experienced a decrease in body length by an average of 13% (about 1.65 meters or 5 feet) since around the year 2000.
Females are now comparable in size to males, whereas they were previously larger.
The reduction in size, more noticeable in recent years, could signal a decline in whale population health and overall ecosystem well-being.
Smaller whales have smaller blubber reserves, making them less resilient to challenges like boat collisions, injuries, entanglement in fishing gear, potentially impacting survival rates and reproductive success.
The shrinking size is likely caused by environmental factors such as changes in food availability, ocean conditions, nutrient availability, and upwelling patterns due to climate change, rather than being inherited genetically.
Gray whales are considered ecosystem sentinels, and their shrinking size coincides with changes in ocean cycles.
Sources: Scientific American, Yahoo News, OPB, Bend Bulletin, Newser, WION, List23, Head Topics, Yale E360, DIVE Magazine, SciTechDaily, FOX 41 Yakima, FOX 28 Spokane, IB Times, NT News, OregonLive, Interesting Engineering, KGW, Earth.com
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
