Gray Whale (<i>Eschrichtius robustus</i>) Sightings in Eastern Beaufort Sea

Abstract

Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus, Lilljeborg) migrate north each spring to feeding grounds, mainly in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Regularly a few individuals travel as far northeast as Point Barrow, Alaska, and a few records have been made of sightings along the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast as far east as Barter Island .... During summer 1980, three sightings of gray whales were made in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, well east of any previously recorded .... All were in open water, well south of the pack ice front. ... These sightings constitute an eastward extension of the known range of the gray whale by 575 km. ... If these individuals migrated north along the coast from Baja California, Mexico, where the largest winter concentrations occur .... [and] If they returned successfully to that wintering area, they swam a round-trip distance of 20,400 km in 9.5 to 11 months. This would be one of the longest known migrations of any mammal species.

Key words: gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, cetacean, marine mammal, migration, Beaufort Sea