Critically endangered western gray whales migrate to the eastern North Pacific

Western North Pacific gray whales (WGWs), once considered extinct, are critically endangered with unknown migratory routes and reproductive areas. We attached satellite-monitored tags to seven WGWs on their primary feeding ground off Sakhalin Island, Russia, three of which subsequently migrated to r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology Letters
Main Authors: Mate, Bruce R., Ilyashenko, Valentin Yu., Bradford, Amanda L., Vertyankin, Vladimir V., Tsidulko, Grigory A., Rozhnov, Vyacheslav V., Irvine, Ladd M.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2015
Subjects:
Marine Biology
Baja
Pacific
Sakhalin
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4424619/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25878049
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0071
Description
Summary:Western North Pacific gray whales (WGWs), once considered extinct, are critically endangered with unknown migratory routes and reproductive areas. We attached satellite-monitored tags to seven WGWs on their primary feeding ground off Sakhalin Island, Russia, three of which subsequently migrated to regions occupied by non-endangered eastern gray whales (EGWs). A female with the longest-lasting tag visited all three major EGW reproductive areas off Baja California, Mexico, before returning to Sakhalin Island the following spring. Her 22 511 km round-trip is the longest documented mammal migration and strongly suggests that some presumed WGWs are actually EGWs foraging in areas historically attributed to WGWs. The observed migration routes provide evidence of navigational skills across open water that break the near-shore north–south migratory paradigm of EGWs. Despite evidence of genetic differentiation, these tagging data indicate that the population identity of whales off Sakhalin Island needs further evaluation.

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