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Gray Whale Update

It is not often that we celebrate a victory in our efforts to protect whales, but this time WE WON!

The plan for a gargantuan salt plant in the San Ignacio Lagoon, the site of the last untouched Gray Whale nursery in Mexico has fallen through! Mega-corporation Mitsubishi has given in to the pressure put on them by environmentalists from around the world, and announced that it will abandon its plans to build the salt plant.

This battle has been going on since Mitsubishi first revealed plans to industrialize San Ignacio Lagoon back in 1994 and a massive campaign to stop them was conducted by groups across the planet. The National Resources Defence Council led the attack, organizing over a million people in a letter and petition campaign along with a boycott of Mitsubishi products that finally got the attention of not only Mitsubishi but also the government of Mexico.

More than 40 major cities and counties in California passed resolutions against the plans and the U.N. World Heritage Committee cast a vote of histical precedence in defense of the Gray Whale nursery. The Washington Post called it "a stunning victory."

To those of you who helped wage the battle, congratulations! And thank you!

Back From Extinction

The California Gray Whale is a success story of protection. In the 1850's there were an estimated 15,000 whales along the Pacific coast, but whaling was in its heyday and these numbers declined dramatically. In the following forty years, the whales were hunted almost to the point of extinction, with their numbers dropping to around 2,000 by the late 1800's. Laws protecting the Gray Whale were enacted in 1946 and slowly their numbers began to rise, in 1983 there were an estimated 16,000 whales. They were removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants on June 16, 1994 and current numbers stand at the highest ever recorded, at 26,635.

Update: 7.10.01

When the Gray Whale was put on the endangered list in 1994, the decision was to monitor the birth rates for five years. Because of wider fluctuations than expected, the count has continued. For the past two years the birth rate has decreased along with a high rate of strandings. This year the number of strandings is lower. What that means to the calf count will not be known for several months.

The table below shows a summary of Gray whale Cow/Calf surveys between 1994 and 2000 from Piedras Blancas, California.

Year	Total Calf Count	Median Migration Date
1994	325	April 26
1995	194	April 20
1996	407	April 27
1997	501	April 20
1998	442	April 19
1999	141	May 11
2000	96	April 15

Increased Strandings

Possbily because of these larger than ever numbers, there are more cases of Gray Whales found stranded lately than ever before. In the past year, 50 animals were found dead along the Mexico coastline with another dozen in California and seven in Washington (with four in Puget Sound alone). These whales were not the typical victims of strandings, as many were juveniles and most showed signs of starvation - possibly a sign of overpopulation. Nature will balance out its population, allowing only those numbers who can be fed to survive. Is this the case?

Gray Update: New information about the fight to save Gray Whales!

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