Western North Pacific Gray Whales In Danger
The Western North Pacific gray whale is facing
a huge number of threats across its range,
not only from oil and gas activities in its feeding ground in the Russian Far East, but from entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with vessels. WWF is working to save this critically endangered population and other endangered whale and dolphin species around the globe.
The world has only 130 gray whales around
Over the coming weeks, the Russian oil and gas company, Rosneft, plans to carry out a major seismic survey in which blasts of acoustic noise are used to detect oil and gas deposits under the ocean floor in the gray whales’ main feeding habitat
Several scientific bodies, including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), have outlined their extreme concern that this seismic survey could result in serious damage to the survival and recovery of western gray whale
Nevertheless, Rosneft the Russian company conducting the survey still plans to go ahead, and there is no evidence that the company will undertake the necessary measures to minimize the impact of the survey on the endangered whales.
Western gray whales are just now arriving in their feeding ground, where the survey is scheduled to take place. This area is particularly important for the whales, as scientists believe it is where mother whales teach their calves to feed and nursing gray whales
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