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According to NOAA, an ‘unusual mortality event' that was killing off gray whales on the west coast has ended. But climate change is adding uncertainty to their conclusions.
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The "Sounders" returned to the Puget Sound region during their annual migration. However, the whales' early arrival could signal widespread hunger and starvation.
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Another key deadline has nearly passed in the Makah Tribe’s request to resume its hunt for gray whales, by getting a waiver under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Here are the latest developments.
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A final decision on the Makah whale hunt was expected from the head of NOAA Fisheries by the end of June. An administrative law judge recommended approval two years ago, but the agency has still not released its final environmental impact statement.
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Three dead whales have washed up on the Oregon coast over the past week. KGW, citing Seaside Aquarium, reports that a baby gray whale washed ashore Wednesday at Fort Stevens State Park, only 100 yards from where a dead sperm whale beached over the weekend. A gray whale also washed up last week on the central coast near Reedsport.
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U.S. researchers say the number of gray whales off western North America has continued to fall over the last two years, a decline that resembles previous population swings over the past several decades.
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A long-awaited decision on the Makah tribe’s application to conduct a whale hunt will come within a year, according to federal regulators with NOAA Fisheries who issued a supplemental environmental impact statement on July 1. The supplemental EIS includes a new preferred alternative that the agency is recommending for approval.
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Officials are responding to a dead gray whale found beached on the west side of Camano Island. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Fisheries West Coast Region posted about the massive stranded mammal, saying a necropsy would be performed.
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A special group of gray whales, known locally as "the Sounders," takes an annual detour from their coastal migration to feed on ghost shrimp in the tidelands of Puget Sound. Normally they start showing up in March but for the past two years they have been arriving early and growing in number.
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It’s been nearly two months since a federal administrative law judge issued his recommendation on the Makah Tribe’s request to revive its whale hunt, and comments on his recommendation closed over the weekend. Now the decision is in the hands of a single official at NOAA headquarters in Maryland.