Students Ask and Experts Answer Conservation Q. Are gray whales an endangered species? A. The gray whale was removed from the endangered species list in 1994. A small number of gray whales are still legally hunted. Grays were hunted to the edge of extinction in the 1850s after the discovery of the calving lagoons, and again in the early 1900s with the introduction of floating whaling factories. The gray whale was given partial protection in 1937 and full protection in 1947 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Since that time, the eastern North Pacific gray whale population has made a remarkable recovery. In 1999 the National Marine Laboratory reported 26,600 gray whales. Q. Is there just one population of gray whales in the world? A. The eastern north Pacific population is the largest surviving population. At one time there was a north Atlantic population, now extinct, possibly the victims of over-hunting. A Korean or western north Pacific stock is now very depleted, also possibly from over-hunting. Q. What are a gray whales' enemies? A. Their natural enemies are sharks and orcas. Their unnatural enemies are ocean pollution, huge fishing nets, and other human activities that harm their food chain or habitat. Q. How do humans harm gray whales and their habitat? A. Humans no longer hunt gray whales in most places. But they may build resorts and crowd habitat with tourists, and discharge waste from cruise ships, which all increase ocean pollution. They may build industries that could harm whales' habitat. One example is the salt production facility some want to build on the shores of the pristine nursery lagoons in Mexico. Some experts believe that global warming, resulting in part from human activities, may be harming the gray whale's food chain. The U.S. Navy has performed low-frequency sonar testing at sea. Researchers have found that gray whales exposed to high-intensity active sonar stray from their migration routes. Beached whales of other species have been found bleeding around their brains and ears — a tell-tale sign of trauma caused by exposure to intense sound—after encounters with this deadly technology. In one U.S. Navy study, blue whales' vocalization decreased by half when exposed to even moderate levels of sonar. Found in oceans worldwide, these endangered giants congregate in the krill-rich waters of California's Channel Islands, on the gray whale migration route.   This Season Teachers Kids Orientation Registration Search Copyright 1997-2009 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Questions or comments? Contact us.