Warning! Gray whale in the Mediterranean
She traveled along the new route opened by the melting ice in the Arctic. It had been more than 300 years since a specimen of this species had been seen in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
She left Alaska and, at the beginning of last July, fifteen thousand kilometers later, arrived on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, to the astonishment of the team of Israeli scientists who discovered and photographed her. What was a gray whale doing in those tepid waters? For more than 300 years, no specimen of this species had been seen in either the Mediterranean or the entire Atlantic Ocean. Whaling, between the 17th and 18th centuries, decimated them all. An easy slaughter, since this species of whale, whose scientific name is Eschrichtius robustus, is characterized by its extreme docility. As the video below, produced by oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau, shows, some of them even approach boats and allow themselves to be touched by people. That is why the Israeli biologists at Immrac (Israel Marine Mammal Research & Assistance Center) were so surprised to confirm what a series of observations over the past few days had suggested: the enormous mammal that was swimming in the waters off the city of Herzliya was indeed one of the ten thousand remaining gray whales, which live only on the other side of the world, in the Pacific Ocean.
To reach the Mediterranean, this whale would have to travel about 30 kilometers, passing through southern Africa. Impossible, or extremely improbable for a species accustomed to annual migrations whose distance does not exceed half that. Thus, biologist Aviad Scheinin, from Immrac, formulated another hypothesis, now considered practically certain: “The whale reached us by traveling a new route in the Arctic, the Northwest Passage: the tongue of sea that coasts Alaska and northern Canada and which is becoming navigable due to the progressive melting of the polar ice cap. For three or four years now, during the summer, the significant reduction in ice has allowed the passage of large ships. And therefore, it also allows the passage of cetaceans.” The whale seen and photographed in the Mediterranean is an adult specimen, about twelve meters long and weighing around twenty tons. The mammal appeared to be in good health, only somewhat thin, which is normal after such a long journey.
The gray whale spends most of its time in the North Pacific Ocean, near Alaska. When it is time to give birth to its own offspring, and for mating rituals, it migrates south, coasting along the United States in search of warmer waters, until it reaches the coast of California and New Mexico. This is an annual migration of 15 kilometers, round trip. Never before, however, had a specimen traveled along the coast of North America to reach the Atlantic. Throughout the last century, its survival was severely compromised and threatened, even in the Pacific Ocean. In 1946, the number of specimens was so reduced – only a few hundred whales remained – that the international community signed a treaty prohibiting their hunting. Since then, the number of specimens has increased, and today it is estimated that there are about ten thousand gray whales in the Pacific.
In recent years, a new race to photograph gray whales has been triggered, but only for the purpose of capturing them. The specimen observed in Israel may not be the only one, as other whales of the species may be following or have already followed the same route and are now swimming in Atlantic waters. It is therefore possible to hypothesize that Eschrichtius robustus could repopulate this ocean once again. The dark side of the coin is the fact that the cause of the melting Arctic ice is global warming. A second piece of evidence of global warming in the North Atlantic is the presence of large quantities of plankton, a situation that has not occurred for at least 800 years. Katja Philippart of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research explains: “The opening of the Northeast Passage has very important implications for the salinity and chemistry of ocean waters. For now, we cannot say whether these consequences will always be positive, as in the case of the return of extinct species. Certainly, we are witnessing very rapid changes, which must be kept under control.”
Watch the video “The Gray Whale's Obstacle Course” by French naturalist Jean-Michel Cousteau: