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Michael Dunne: I’m Michael Dunne. We live in the Beaver State, and many people think of salmon first when they think of Oregon. But the gray whale can certainly be considered our state’s most iconic animal. After all, hundreds of thousands of Oregonians have them on their license plates. Yet such adoration isn’t helping the species survive the new reality of climate change. Today on the show, you’ll hear from an OSU scientist who has been studying our gray whales for years and has grave concerns about the population off our coast, because the whales can’t find enough to eat due to climatic changes in their environment. It’s strange but true: Some of the largest animals on the planet are literally starving to death. Then, at the end of the show, we’ll talk with our reporter about a sticky tax issue happening in Corvallis. Leigh Torres is a professor at Oregon State University, working at the Marine Mammal Institute. Leigh, thank you so much for coming on and talking with us.
Leigh Torres: Yeah, I’m so happy to be here to talk with you.
Dunne: Let’s start with this. Tell listeners: What is the Pacific Coast Feeding Group?
Torres: They’re this special little group of gray whales, about 200 of them, that have been using our coastline here in the Pacific Northwest, between Northern California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, for about the last 60 or 80 years. Instead of migrating all the way up to the Arctic to feed, they feed right here off our coast.
Dunne: So traditionally, there have been enough nutrients in our waters off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington that they can stay here. Is that basically it?
Torres: Yes. They feed differently here than they do in the Arctic. Here, they’re targeting a lot of zooplankton in the water column, little zooplankton called mysids, which are really productive in our reef and kelp habitat. That’s why we see these PCFG gray whales so close to shore: They’re often feeding on reefs covered in kelp, where their primary prey, the mysids, are. But with changing environmental conditions everywhere, including here on our coast off Oregon, the nutrients that support those mysid swarms and the temperature are changing. That has helped kelp to grow. All of that is impacting food availability for gray whales. So we’re definitely documenting changes in the whales’ presence here, their health and how much feeding they’re doing. Environmental change is certainly impacting these whales.
Dunne: Well, let’s dig into that. You’ve been studying this group for quite some time. First of all, how do you study them? And what are some of the findings you’re seeing, based on the environmental changes you just talked about?
Torres: Whales are certainly tricky to study because they spend 95% of their time out of our view, underwater. So we use a lot of different tools to try to understand them. One of the primary ones is just photography. We take pictures of their sides, and each whale has a distinct pigmentation pattern. Based on that, we can recognize individuals. Through those photo ID methods, we can track where individuals go and how often we see them in different places. Since 2015, we’ve also been using drones a lot to study the whales. We fly the drones over the whales and measure how long they are. That length gives us an estimate of how old they are, which is really cool because it can tell us how they might change behaviors or distribution patterns as they age. With the drones, we also do photogrammetry to look at how fat or skinny they are, and that can be an indicator of how changes in prey availability impact their health. Whales should be fat. They’re here to feed for six months, and that foraging effort during those six months really finances the rest of their year, their life. All the energy they need to migrate, to feed and to reproduce comes from feeding. So if they’re skinny, they really can’t do those other things very well.
Dunne: OK, and are they getting skinnier?
Torres: They are, yes. We’ve found a few things. One is that these PCFG whales are overall skinnier than the whales that go up to the Arctic to feed. They’re also shorter than those other whales, which is really interesting. That means there’s some morphological difference between these two groups of whales. We’re also finding that they’re getting shorter over time. Since about the year 2000, these PCFG whales have been getting shorter, and it’s not just a little bit shorter; it’s a lot shorter. It’s 1.3 meters, about 4 feet shorter than they were before 2000. We also see that their body condition changes year to year. We’ve been studying these whales, I should say, for over 10 years now, and during that period, some years have been really good, with a lot of kelp and a lot of food around for the whales, and they’ve been really fat. But other years have been really poor. In fact, this year is a really poor year. We haven’t seen many whales or much feeding activity on mysids. We found that both the length of the whales and their fatness are related to environmental conditions here. One of those is upwelling. That’s the process in which nutrients from the bottom of the ocean get brought up to the surface, where they meet the sunlight, and we get a sort of productivity bloom. You can think of it as sort of like spring on land. Upwelling is great, but we also need a process called relaxation. That’s when the winds stop blowing, and those nutrients can stay in an area and be retained there. That’s when they can provide food for everything in that area. What we found is that the balance between upwelling and relaxation is really important for the mysids, and if we get more relaxation, we get fatter whales. But one thing that’s happening with climate change is that we’re getting windier conditions, which means less relaxation. So we’re worried that with climate change and windier conditions, there will just be less food available for the whales.
Dunne: OK. Have you compared the relative health of the Pacific Coast Feeding Group with groups of gray whales in other environments? You mentioned the Arctic could be a rich feeding ground. Are we seeing healthier groups of whales in different parts of the globe?
Torres: Gray whales primarily occupy the North Pacific Ocean, really around the margins of the ocean, near coastal areas. But they’re facing dire changes in prey availability across that range because of climate change. Their primary prey base in the Arctic has really declined because of the loss of sea ice up there, so those whales are also particularly skinny. We’ve had really high stranding rates of gray whales in very skinny condition over the last five or six years. The gray whales here in the PCFG are skinny, but they have these really unique and specialized ways of feeding in this reef and kelp environment: things like head-standing, side swimming and upside-down swimming. I think those have opened up different prey they’re able to target here. When there are crab larvae swarms at the surface, the whales will literally go chomp, chomp, chomp at the surface, trying to suck up that prey resource. That flexibility in what they feed on and how they feed is a really special thing for gray whales, and we’re seeing that play out in different places. Because their typical feeding habitat in the Arctic might not be so good, gray whales are now trying to find other prey resources around the North Pacific. In places like Sitka Sound, Alaska, they’re feeding a lot more, targeting herring spawn there, which is pretty cool. We compared the body condition of whales there to the body condition of these whales here in Oregon, and they’re actually in good body condition after feeding up there in Sitka. So that’s pretty hopeful news that these animals can adapt and find new foraging grounds that help them be in healthier body condition.
Dunne: OK, so if I’m hearing you right, at some point, the PCFG could theoretically migrate someplace else because of richer feeding opportunities.
Torres: Yeah, I think that is certainly possible. Gray whales will not just keep doing the same thing over and over again if it’s not working out for them. They innovate different behaviors, and they’ll explore new areas. So if the feeding in their typical areas here isn’t working out, I think they will wander off and go other places to find food. That’s really something we need to think carefully about. Gray whales are an iconic species here in Oregon. They’re really important for our tourism industry and just part of our culture here. So we do need to protect them in any ways we can from other impacts, so that when they are feeding here, they have full access, with no disturbance, to the food they really need.
Dunne: I know it’s maybe a difficult question to answer, or maybe it’s super easy: Stop global warming. But what are some possible solutions for a more robust and healthier gray whale group off the Oregon coast?
Torres: That’s a great question. Certainly, if we could all work toward reducing climate change, that would be a huge benefit to all marine species, but particularly our gray whales here. Other than that, there are real impacts to these whales. We see that they have high scarring rates from ship strikes, even from small boat traffic. We see a lot of propeller scars on these animals, and that’s because they feed in really coastal areas, on the reefs where boats are out fishing or cruising around. So I think paying more attention as a boat driver and slowing down when you’re in gray whale habitat would be a great way to avoid adding a significant injury to these animals, one that, if it doesn’t kill them, really harms them and reduces their health. The other thing is that fisheries entanglements are a particular threat to these whales, because they feed in these dynamic ways where they’re rolling around and upside down, so they can get their fins and flippers entangled in line. If you are out there fishing, it’s important to pick up your gear quickly after you put it down, so it doesn’t stay in their habitat and pose a risk to them any longer. Just be conscious of that and of how close you get. There are rules that you shouldn’t be within 100 yards of whales.
Dunne: There was a big symposium recently in Newport. I wanted to ask you about it in general because, as I understand it, it brought together scientists from all over the world to talk about some of the problems impacting whales and gray whales. Maybe talk a little bit about the importance of getting groups together to talk about what they’re seeing in the individual groups they study, as well as more holistically.
Torres: The gray whale symposium hosted here by the Marine Mammal Commission was fantastic. It brought together scientists from all over the Pacific who study gray whales to discuss what’s happening to them and what people are seeing in different areas. Because these gray whales migrate massive distances from their breeding grounds to their feeding grounds, it really does take a large community coming together to fully and holistically understand their health and movement patterns. So it was a really special event, and I’m grateful to have been a part of it. It did highlight the impacts gray whales are facing because of climate change, but also, I think, our ability to work together collectively to understand how they’re adapting. The gray whales are behaviorally flexible, like we talked about. So we, as scientists and as environmental managers, also need to be behaviorally flexible about where we monitor gray whales and how we manage them as they discover new foraging grounds. We need to be able to protect those important refuges for them. Those were some of the discussion points at the symposium: different methods we can use to study them and how we can better support their persistence in this hard time for them.
Dunne: I know it was focused on gray whales, but I did want to ask you: Are some of your colleagues who study other types of whales seeing some of the same impacts? I would imagine so. I know you said gray whales are certainly specialized, especially the Pacific Coast Feeding Group, but are other large seagoing mammals feeling the same impacts of fewer nutrients because of climate change?
Torres: Oh, 100%. Climate change is the biggest impact on our ecosystems right now for all animals. Ocean conditions are shifting, which means temperatures are rising, and that affects how many animals are in our ecosystem and where they are. For other whale species, we’re seeing animals shift a lot into habitat farther north, because that’s where cooler waters tend to be. That means these animals may then encounter other threats they didn’t encounter in other areas. So gray whales are certainly not the only animals feeling the punch of climate change. It’s pervasive, and we should expect animals on land and in the ocean to do different things and change where they’re showing up, and their health will reflect that too. Animals rely on predictable sources of food, and right now, nothing is predictable. We see that all the time with the weird weather we’re getting, and the animals feel that too. So when they find food, we really need to make sure they can access it.
Dunne: OK, Professor, my last question for you is this: From everything I’ve read, weather experts are predicting something called a super El Niño this year. From your field of study, are you even more concerned that if this super El Niño plays out the way it’s predicted, this coming year could be even worse for the PCFG and their environment?
Torres: Yes, I am very concerned. This year has been a year of really low kelp and food availability for the whales. We’ve seen many fewer whales than we normally see. Some of our regular whales just haven’t shown up, I think because the food hasn’t been here, and some of our whales are feeding in ways we’ve never seen before. So if conditions shift even further into different, bizarre conditions because of this super El Niño, I think the whales, as well as a lot of other marine species, will be confused, to be honest, and maybe not be able to find the food they need. So yes, this super El Niño certainly sounds scary to me. I think it amplifies the importance of long-term monitoring programs like the one we’ve been able to run here, studying these gray whales for 10 years. Now we can compare how they respond to this super El Niño to what we’ve recorded in the past, to try to understand what is impacting these animals and where they might shift to.
Dunne: Interesting stuff. She is Leigh Torres, professor at OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute. Professor, it’s always great to talk to you. Thanks so much for coming on.
Torres: Yeah, thanks for your interest.
Dunne: Before we go, we’ll get a quick update on a tax issue facing the city of Corvallis from our reporter Macy Moore. Macy Moore is a reporter for us here at KLCC. Macy, it’s great to see you. Thanks so much for coming into the studio.
Macy Moore: Of course.
Dunne: You did a story about a tax vote, or tax issue, up in Corvallis. Break it down for the audience. What’s going on there? Because it’s been delayed, right?
Moore: The city council’s decision on whether to implement a new tax, or new taxes, in Corvallis has been delayed. This has been an ongoing conversation in the city council for a while now. There is a $4 million deficit in the city’s general fund budget in Corvallis, plus a $14 million cost to build a new civic campus, including a new city hall and police station campus. To make up that money, the city might implement a payroll tax or a personal income tax.
Dunne: OK, why the delay?
Moore: It’s a couple of things. At first, the city council was saying it really wanted more community input. A lot of community members in Corvallis said they felt like this decision, or the potential for a decision, was coming out of nowhere and that they hadn’t heard about it before. So the city council just started holding town hall meetings where people are invited to come. It’s different from public comment at a city council meeting: You get as much time as you want and can ask as many questions as you want, compared to your three minutes to say your thing at a city council meeting. And now they also want to wait until the new council is elected in November.
Dunne: OK. Has the council or city staff given any indication of what shape the city might be in if this tax isn’t implemented?
Moore: They think a lot of services might get cut, or jobs might get cut, if the tax isn’t implemented. They’re looking at the tax because Corvallis is what they call a full-service city, so it provides all of its own services itself. For example, some other cities will outsource firefighting to a fire district that’s funded a different way. Corvallis funds all of those types of utilities and city services itself, so the city doesn’t want to cut or reduce those services, and that’s why it’s considering this tax. But I’m assuming that if they can’t balance the budget, they’ll have to look into service cuts.
Dunne: They are Macy Moore, and they do a great job for us here at KLCC. Macy, thanks as always. I always appreciate you coming in and talking to us.
Moore: For sure, thank you.
Dunne: That’s the show for today. All episodes of “Oregon on the Record” are available as a podcast at klcc.org. Tomorrow on the show, you’ll hear about yet another controversy befalling the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. I’m Michael Dunne, host of “Oregon on the Record.” Thanks for listening.
