PORT ANGELES — Five gray whales have washed up on Washington and Canadian shorelines this spring and scientists don’t know why.
At the same time, despite anecdotal reports of fewer gray whale sightings in California, whale sightings on the North Olympic Peninsula are about average for this time of year, when the migration season nears its peak.
Four beached gray whales have washed up along Puget Sound over the past two weeks. Another whale washed ashore at East Sooke Park west of Victoria last month.
“This may prove to be a year with elevated mortality,” said John Calambokidis, a biologist for Olympia-based Cascadia Research.
Scientists perform a necropsy when a whale is beached to determine a cause a death. The results of those exams for the area’s beached whales are not known.
Calambokidis isn’t hitting the panic button yet.
The number of dead whales found in the area is small compared with the 50 gray whale carcasses that came ashore both in 1999 and 2000.
Whale-watching skippers in Southern California became alarmed last month when their sightings of gray whales dropped sharply, The Associated Press reported.
Scientists and whale watchers in the Northwest say there’s nothing out of the ordinary about the number of sightings.
“We don’t do any kind of annual census tracking animals migrating, but we do some surveys off the Washington coast,” Calambokidis said.
“In general, I think whale-watching operations like us are only getting a small sampling of the gray whales migrating by.”
The timing of whale sightings and the number of whales in a pod may account for anomalies in whale sightings, Calambokidis said.
Jim Richeson, owner of Top Notch Ocean Charters in LaPush, said whale sightings are common this time of year.
“There were a lot of whales last month,” said Richeson, whose charter offers whale watching tours for $60 per person when there is demand.
“I’ve been out three times in last week on bottom-fishing trips. We’ve seen whales. I wouldn’t say there are any more or less than normal.”
Concern in California
Whale-watching skippers near Los Angeles said that sightings dropped from 25 a day in good years to five a day this season.
Despite the anecdotal reports, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists say gray whale populations are holding steady.
Based on surveys and a 2006 census count, scientists say the gray whale population is about 20,000, or more than double what it was in the 1960s.
“The gray whale population has made a long-term recovery,” Calambokidis said.
“To some degree, [the washed up whales] seems to be a natural part of the animal being at its carrying capacity.
Gray whales were taken off the endangered list in 1994.
“A number of scientists, including us, who study gray whales are very much interested in monitoring how this population behaves given that they have recovered to historical levels,” Calambokidis said.
The gray whale migration — which is thousands of miles between the Arctic and Baja — draws scores of sightseers.
Gray whales, which can grow to be 45 feet long and weigh more than 45 tons, feed in the Arctic during the summer months and fast in the winter while they are in their spawning grounds in Baja.
Thinness no surprise
It’s no surprise, Calambokidis said, that the whales washing up on Washington shore this year have been skinny.
Calambokidis said small changes in the climate and the polar ice cap can affect the whales. He said the recent deaths in the area warrant some attention.
“We are concerned, but I don’t think this is alarming quite yet,” Calambokidis said.
Mike Gurling, manager of the Forks Chamber of Commerce visitor’s center, said early May is typically the peak time for whale watching. The season usually ends in early to mid-June, he said.
The Quileute tribe held its annual whale-welcoming ceremony on Thursday at First Beach in LaPush.
“I don’t think anybody has seen them in large numbers yet,” Gurling said.
Part of the reason for that may be the series of storms that churned up the ocean in March and made whale watching more difficult, he added.
Gurling said the best place to view the migrating whales is from a hill or a bluff overlooking the ocean or Strait of Juan de Fuca.
“The higher the better,” he said.
“If you’re down on a flat beach trying to look out over the flat ocean it’s a little more difficult.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
