The gray whales that migrate today along the coast of North America are one of the bright spots for whales that were severely depleted during the heyday of commercial whaling. The species has the unfortunate distinction of having been repeatedly reduced before protection efforts were put in place by the League of Nations and nations that host the migrations. And still today, every summer, they are hunted in Russia.
The gray whale once inhabited the Atlantic Ocean, migrating between the Arctic and more temperate waters along the North American east coast. Little is known about these so-called “scrag” whales. Populations were hunted to the point of extermination by Biscay Bay whalers and later English whalers in the 18th century well before the scientific study of wildlife arrived in the New World. (Some of those early whalers may have beaten Columbus to the Atlantic Coast of the New World – they did not leave many records.)
The gray whales in the North Pacific became targets as whalers in the 18th and 19th centuries finished off populations of sperm, bowhead, and right whales. Eventually, gray whale hunting halted - populations plummeted and whale oil replaced crude oil.
After World War 1, gray whales had recovered enough to prompt an assembly of whaling stations along the west coast of the Americas - notably in California and Baja’s Magdalena Bay. Once again, the numbers of gray whale began to drop precipitously, and the League of Nations banned commercial hunting of gray whales, a ban that continues through the International Whaling Commission (IWC).With this protection, reinforced by the fact that the gray whales migrate in waters controlled by the US, Canada, and Mexico, gray whale populations saw a rising trend for some years.
Despite their years of increase in population size, the last ten years have seen gray whales suffering from tragic die-offs along the Pacific coast. From January to June 2019, 160 gray whales were stranded along the coasts of Mexico, Canada, and the US. Many more likely died at sea. The cause(s) of these die-offs are unclear. Many biologists believe the warming of Arctic waters, caused by human-induced climate change from the burning of fossil fuels, is harming the bottom organisms in the Arctic that feed gray whales during the summer. Gray whales seldom eat during their long migration to and from the Arctic Ocean.
These whale die-offs, apparently due to starvation and ship strikes, have halted the growth and recovery of the population. The latest survey (2015-16 survey, before the current die-off, which occurred in 2019) estimated the gray whale population at 26,960.
US Native peoples in Alaska have occasionally killed gray whales, but they prefer bowhead whales, which are also fairly abundant now, recovering from 19th century commercial whaling. The US did sponsor scientific permits to kill gray whales in the 1960s, a program that was stopped by US Senator Alan Cranston in 1968, at the behest of Jim Schroeder, my mentor.
However, the Russian government has continued a program of killing gray whales annually in the Bering and Chukchi Seas, ostensibly for the subsistence needs of the local Native peoples of Russia. A Greenpeace group revealed that some whale meat and blubber acquired through the program are used to feed foxes farmed for fur, even though the practice of using whale meat for fur farming violates the IWC rules for subsistence hunting.
In 2018, Russia harpooned and landed 106 gray whales. Unlike US Inuit hunters, who use small boats and shoulder-mounted guns to kill bowhead whales for their subsistence needs, the Russian hunters operate modern boats donned with harpoon guns. Between 2013 and 2018, an IWC quota of 744 gray whales allowed Russian whalers to slaughter and land 716 whales.
IWC sets a 5-year quota for subsistence killing of whales by the US and Russia. This is a political effort by the US and Russia to make common cause and avoid votes against their respective subsistence hunts. Pro-whaling Japan once led its client states, IWC delegations they bribe to support commercial whaling, to block subsistence quotas to leverage a return to commercial whaling. The tactic failed in the long run, and Japan left the IWC to resume commercial whaling in 2019.
However, the assessment of quotas as a “block” helps hide close inspection of the quota needs by IWC members.
It is not clear how long this hunt can or should continue – certainly the local Russian Native people use the whale meat, but how much is really needed for their subsistence needs, how much is used for feeding foxes to sell for furs, and how much goes to waste?
Neither the Russian government nor the IWC (nor the US, for that matter) is interested in asking hard questions about the gray whales and whaling.
Photos by Mark J. Palmer/Earth Island Institute.
