Back From Near Extinction

International conventions and treaties to protect whales were introduced beginning in the 1930’s when the international community realized with horror what it had been doing to the whales, particularly in the Antarctic where over 2 million whales were slaughtered. Though whaling under restricted conditions continues, there is now a worldwide moratorium on whaling.

The north Atlantic grays were wiped out in the 1700s and the western Pacific stock, with only an estimated 200 individuals, is on life support. The eastern Pacific gray whale herd has rebounded to an estimated 22,000-24,000, but now new threats loom: global warming which is affecting the Arctic food supply, ocean pollution, and sonar.

Before 1930, the eastern Pacific grays were hunted to near extinction, not once but twice. The discovery in 1845 of Magdalena Bay, one of three lagoons on the Baja peninsula that are the whale’s nurseries, attracted fleets of whalers who began to slaughter the whales by the hundreds. The quiet lagoons, separated by a narrow channel to the sea, made the mothers and their calves easy targets for harpooners.

As the numbers of grays decreased and the products from the whales were found to be less attractive commercially than those of other species, gray whaling in the 19th Century tapered off and the gray whales began to come back.

By then Scammon had abandoned whaling and turned to conservation. He gave us the first detailed account of eastern Pacific gray whales (among dozens of other marine species) in his book, The Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America. An artist, Scammon included sketches of whales in his book.

Killing Whales with Ruthless Efficiency

The early 20th Century saw advances in whaling technology and the introduction of factory ships, huge whale-processing vessels that killed and stripped whales with ruthless mechanical efficiency. Just as the grays were rebounding from the devastation of the previous century, these ships brought the whale once again close to extinction.