Here on the Endangered Perspective, it’s been our mission to inform you about the numerous endangered and threatened species in Atlantic Canadian waters. We‘ve covered everything from sea turtles to shorebirds, warning of their impending extinction and suggesting solutions where they exist. Knowledge, after all, is power.
But we’ve painted an optimistic picture thus far, a picture in which all of the species at risk on our coast can still be saved. This is both true and important, but it’s equally important to remember the species which cannot be saved…the ones already gone…the ones standing as grim reminders of what we could still lose. With that in mind, I give you the grey whale.
Historically, there were three populations of grey whale on Earth – one in the northwest Pacific Ocean (Japan), another in the northeast Pacific Ocean (western Canada) and finally the North Atlantic Ocean (eastern Canada and Europe).
This animal was unique among the great whales, growing 15 metres in length and sporting grey or black skin. It had no dorsal fin, but instead a collection of humps running down its back, a large one followed by 9-13 smaller ones. It was the only whale with a protruding upper jaw and had one of the longest migratory patterns of all, travelling as much as 15,000-20,000 km in the course of a year.
"Over a lifetime, a gray whale migrates the equivalent distance of a return trip to the moon,” said Nicola Hodgins of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), which has its headquarters in Wiltshire, UK.
Whalers used to call them devilfish, because they defended themselves and their children with more ferocity than other whale. Contrary to this nickname and its intended meaning, grey whales visiting California have a reputation for friendliness, allowing people on boats to touch them and even scratch their noses. It seems this aquatic mammal is capable of emotional extremes much like us.
Of the three historical populations mentioned above, only one still prospers. The northeast Pacific grey whale population, on the west coasts of Canada and the United States, has a recovered population of approximately 26,000 individuals. This is after tireless conservation efforts. The northwest Pacific population has all but vanished, with no more than 130 individuals left.
In the case of Atlantic Canada, a grey whale hasn’t been seen here since the 18th century, the victim of extensive whaling the habitat destruction. There are no grey whales left in the entire North Atlantic Ocean, so far as we know. Fossil records and whalers’ accounts tell us grey whales used to visit the Scotian Shelf, the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the Gulf of St Lawrence and possibly Hudson’s Bay, but no longer.
In Canada, it’s required that a “recovery strategy” be created for any species at risk, so we can prevent its extinction and guard it against our actions. The grey whale’s recovery strategy is a haunting document, giving this animal’s dimensions, appearance, weight…but little else. We know virtually nothing about the population which once called Atlantic Canada home. We don’t know its migratory patterns, its historical abundance or the role it played in the Atlantic Canadian ecosystem.
“Recovery of this species is considered not technically or biologically feasible at this time,” the recovery strategy reads. It’s difficult to imagine an entire ocean being emptied of any particular species, even one so large and conspicuous as the grey whale. There was one sighted in the Mediterranean Sea on May 10, 2010, but a single sighting is not evidence of a recovering population. Perhaps this was a lone remnant of the North Atlantic grey whales, or perhaps a pioneer, venturing from the Pacific to our empty ocean.
The grey whale may be gone from our ocean, but it must not be forgotten. It stands, or swims, as a harsh reminder of how unique and irreplaceable our endangered species are. Each of them deserves - and in fact needs - our empathy and understanding, lest they go the way of the grey whale, never to visit our beautiful coast again.
