The strandings this year represent what Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a whistleblower protection and environmental advocacy group, is calling a new catastrophic die-off. This year’s count most likely underestimates the actual number of gray whales dying off the coast because the carcasses tend to sink, the group said.
The whales seem to be starving, PEER board chair and Alaska marine ecologist Rick Steiner said in a statement. As declining Arctic sea ice reduces the tiny shrimp-like crustaceans the whales feed on, the group is pressing for action on shorter-term threats including ship strikes, oil spills, fishing gear entanglement, ocean noise and disturbance.