Eastern gray whales were once three to five times more numerous in the Pacific Ocean than today, a new study says.
Geoff Shester Gray whale in Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico
Eastern gray whales were once three to five times more numerous in the Pacific Ocean than today, a new study says.
According to a recent census, about 22,000 eastern gray whales currently live in the Pacific. Experts had thought this to be around the whales' natural population level, because of widespread die-offs of gray whales between 1999 and 2001 that plunged the animals to 18,000 individuals.
But scientists studying whale DNA have concluded that the Pacific whale population previously ranged from 76,000 to 118,000.
