Threats
According to the Government of Canada's Management Plan for gray whales, threats to the eastern North Pacific population of gray whales include:
- Increased human activities in their breeding lagoons in Mexico
- Climate change
- Acute noise
- The threat of toxic spills
- Aboriginal whaling
- Entanglement with fishing gear
- Boat collisions
- Impacts from fossil fuel exploration and extraction
Western gray whales are facing, the large-scale offshore oil and gas development programs near their summer feeding ground, as well as fatal net entrapments off Japan during migration, which pose significant threats to the future survival of the population.
The substantial nearshore industrialization and shipping congestion throughout the migratory corridors of the western gray whale population represent potential threats by increasing the likelihood of exposure to ship strikes, chemical pollution, and general disturbance (Weller et al. 2002).
Offshore gas and oil development in the Okhotsk Sea within 20 km of the primary feeding ground off northeast Sakhalin Island is of particular concern. Activities related to oil and gas exploration, including geophysical seismic surveying, pipelaying and drilling operations, increased vessel traffic, and oil spills, all pose potential threats to western gray whales. Disturbance from underwater industrial noise may displace whales from critical feeding habitat. Physical habitat damage from drilling and dredging operations, combined with possible impacts of oil and chemical spills on benthic prey communities also warrants concern.
Read more about this topic: Gray Whale
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