Whale watch organizations are concerned that a special group of gray whales has returned to Puget Sound early for the past four years. Nicknamed the “Sounders,” they now number about 15. They come to the mud flats between Whidbey and Camano Islands to feed on ghost shrimp each spring. It’s a detour on their annual migration up the West Coast from Baja California, to the Bering Sea and Alaska, where they feed.
“They stop off here for this delicious buffet,” said Howard Garrett with the Orca Network.
Garret noted that the unique glacial geology of north Puget Sound creates an environment that hosts an especially abundant population of invertebrates that the whales like to feast on. And their early arrival is likely an indication of an urgent need to feed. This year researchers documented the first one here in mid-January.
“Which may indicate the continuation of the unusual mortality event, which has been going on now for four years, which has been a long-term decline in the overall eastern Pacific gray whale population,” Garrett said.
NOAA Fisheries declared the start of the unusual mortality event in 2019, after hundreds of emaciated gray whales washed up on West Coast beaches. As of June 2023, the population decline is estimated at 46%. The die off is likely linked to changes in their food sources in the Arctic, caused by the warming climate.
Garrett noted the detour that these Sounders take is a successful adaptation; those that learn how to feed here return each year and are documented to bulk up before they continue north on the migration.
“The ones that do come in here survive better,” Garrett said. “The data show it's good for them. It's a good move.”
One whale, CRC2440 or “Tahoma” is the first to have been documented spending an entire year continuously feeding in Puget Sound. It was first seen in the Whidbey basin in January 2022 and rejoined the northbound migration in the spring of 2023.
In its news release, Orca Network reminded vessel operators of all types to be on the looking for the slow-moving animals and to share the waterways.
“Gray whales can surface anywhere unexpectedly. Follow all Be Whale Wise laws/guidelines while on the water. At first sight of any whale all vessels should slow to under 7 knots and keep at least 100 yards distance from gray whales,” the organization advised.
