Gray Whales A Fraction Of Historic Levels, Genetic Research Says

Starving whales a warning sign of problems in the food chain. Gray whales in the Pacific Ocean, long thought to have fully recovered from whaling, were once three to five times as plentiful as they are now, according to a report to be published September 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Todayus population of more than 22,000 gray whales has successfully been brought back from the threat of extinction and is now the most abundant whale on the North American west coast. But the new findings from researchers at Stanford University and the University of Washington suggest that the current population is actually far below the original numberu"estimated by genetic methods at 96,000 animalsu"that once roved the Pacific Ocean. The report also weighs in about why large numbers of gray whales have recently been discovered suffering from starvation...