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Critically endangered western gray whales migrate to the eastern North Pacific

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/bz60d182n

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  • Western North Pacific gray whales (WGWs), once considered extinct, are critically endangered with unknown migratory routes and reproductive areas. We attached satellite-monitored tags to seven WGWs on their primary feeding ground off Sakhalin Island, Russia, three of which subsequently migrated to regions occupied by non-endangered eastern gray whales (EGWs). A female with the longest-lasting tag visited all three major EGW reproductive areas off Baja California, Mexico, before returning to Sakhalin Island the following spring. Her 22,511 km round-trip is the longest documented mammal migration and strongly suggests that some presumed WGWs are actually EGWs foraging in areas historically attributed to WGWs. The observed migration routes provide evidence of navigational skills across open water that break the near-shore north-south migratory paradigm of EGWs. Despite evidence of genetic differentiation, these tagging data indicate that the population identity of whales off Sakhalin Island needs further evaluation.
  • Keywords: stock structure, endangered species, wide-ranging species, satellite tracking, migration, western gray whale
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  • Mate, B. R., Ilyashenko, V. Y., Bradford, A. L., Vertyankin, V. V., Tsidulko, G. A., Rozhnov, V. V., & Irvine, L. M. (2015). Critically endangered western gray whales migrate to the eastern North Pacific. Biology Letters, 11(4), 20150071. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2015.0071
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  • 11
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  • 4
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  • Contracting for this research was undertaken by the International Whaling Commission with funds provided by Exxon Neftegas Limited and Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, as well as the Office of Naval Research for data recovery costs and donors to the OSU Marine Mammal Institute.
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