{"id":5544,"date":"2024-01-09T05:53:21","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T12:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/?p=5544"},"modified":"2024-01-23T18:33:18","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T01:33:18","slug":"wandering-whales-what-are-pacific-gray-whales-doing-in-atlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/2024\/01\/09\/wandering-whales-what-are-pacific-gray-whales-doing-in-atlantic\/","title":{"rendered":"Wandering whales: what are Pacific gray whales doing in Atlantic?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Clara Bird<\/a>, PhD Candidate, OSU Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Lab<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy 2024 everyone! The holiday season usually involves a lot of travelling to visit friends and family, but we\u2019re not the only ones. While most gray whales migrate long distances to their wintering grounds in the Pacific Ocean along the Baja Mexico peninsula, a few whales have made even longer journeys. In the past 13 years, there have been four reported observations of gray whales in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Most recently, a gray whale was seen off south Florida in December 2023. While these reports always inspire some awe for the ability of a whale to travel such an incredible distance, they also inspire questions as to why and how these whales end up so far from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there used to be a population of gray whales in the Atlantic, it was eradicated by whaling in the mid-nineteenth century (Alter et al., 2015), which made the first observation of a gray whale in the Mediterranean in 2010 especially incredible. This whale was first observed in May off the coast of Israel and then Spain (Scheinin et al., 2011). It was estimated to be about 13 m long (a rough visual estimate made through comparison with a boat) and in poor, but not critical, body condition. Scheinin et al. (2011) proposed that the whale likely crossed from the Bering Sea to the North Atlantic and followed the coasts of either North America or Eurasia (Figure 1).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Figure 1. Figure from Schenin et al. (2011) showing the possible routes the 2010 whale took to reach the Mediterranean and the path it took within.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A few years later, another gray whale was spotted in the Southern Atlantic, in Namibia\u2019s Walvis Bay in May 2013. The observation report from the Namibian Dolphin Project proposes that the whale could have crossed through the Arctic or swum around the southern tip of South America (Peterson 2013).  While they did not estimate the size or condition of whale, the photos in the report indicate that the whale was not in good condition (Figure 2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 2. Images of the gray whale seen in Namibia. Source: <\/em>http:\/\/namibiandolphinproject.blogspot.com\/2013\/05\/a-rare-and-mysterious-visitor-in-walvis.html<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The most covered sighting was in 2021, when a gray whale was repeatedly seen in Mediterranean in May of 2021. This whale was estimated to be about two years old and skinny. Furthermore, it\u2019s body condition continued to decline with each sighting (\u201cLost in the Mediterranean, a Starving Grey Whale Must Find His Way Home Soon,\u201d 2021). The whale was first spotted off the coast of Morocco, then it appears to have crossed the Mediterranean to the coast of Italy and then traveled to the coast of France. Like the 2010 sighting, it is hypothesized that this whale crossed through the Arctic and then crossed the North Atlantic to the enter the Mediterranean through the Gibraltar Strait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image of the 2021 whale in the Mediterranean. Source: REUTERS\/Alexandre Minguez, https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/environment\/lost-mediterranean-starving-grey-whale-must-find-his-way-home-soon-2021-05-07\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most recently, a gray whale was seen off the coast of Miami in December 2023 (Rodriguez, 2023). While there is no information on its estimated size or condition, it does not appear to be in critical condition from the video (Video 1). This sighting is interesting because it breaks from the pattern that was forming with all the previous sightings occurring in late spring on the western side of the Atlantic. This recent gray whale was seen in winter on the eastern side of the Atlantic. The May timing suggests that those whales crossed into the Atlantic during the spring migration when leaving the wintering grounds and heading to summer foraging grounds. However, this December sighting indicates that this whale \u2018got lost\u2019 on its way to the wintering grounds after a foraging season. Another interesting pattern is the body condition, while condition was not always reported, the spring whales all seemed to be in poor condition, likely due to the long journey and\/or the lack of suitable food. The Miami whale is the only one that appeared to be in decent condition, but this arrived just after the foraging season and travelled a shorter distance. Finally, it\u2019s also interesting that there is no clear pattern of age, these sightings are of a mixture of adult (2010), juvenile (2021), and unknown (2013, 2023) age classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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