What gray whales are telling us about ecosystem change in the Pacific Arctic

Gray whales in the eastern North Pacific have been in steep decline for the past six years, and recent estimates of abundance, reproductive output, and strandings suggest this decline is continuing and could be accelerating. These developments have been particularly alarming as gray whales are considered a species of low conservation concern given their strong recovery from post-whaling levels. However, their recovery has coincided with rapid ocean warming, leading to reduced sea ice and increased northward transport of Pacific water through the Bering Strait that is impacting prey quality and availability in gray whales’ sub-Arctic and Arctic feeding areas. The recent population downturn may in fact be a predictable result of the convergence of a strong recovery with compounding climate impacts.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  ICES Journal of Marine Science

• Publication date

  2025-11-01

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1093/icesjms/fsaf196
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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