"Gray whales are showing signs of extreme stress with significant unusual mortalities, reduced reproductive rates, increased proportion of malnourished whales, and changes in foraging behavior. The result has been a precipitous drop in numbers – the latest estimate of 13,000 animals is less than half of the 27,000 of ten years ago. "

Today, the gray whales are in precipitous decline, with significant range-wide die-offs, malnourished "skinny" individuals, and reduced reproductive rates.  The best available analysis suggests a decrease in critical food species resulting from large-scale ecological changes in traditional Arctic summer feeding grounds. Without sufficient food during the summer, gray whales do not have the energy reserves necessary to compensate for the winter fast and to reproduce successfully.

Read our entire letter with background and supporting materials here...