Critically Endangered Pacific gray whales get reprieve from oil platform

Reprieve for whales at risk from oil platform

October 2013. In a victory for conservationists, an oil platform planned near the habitat of a Critically Endangered whale population has been postponed for at least five years.

A decision about development plans for the offshore Sakhalin-II drilling platform has been deferred by the Sakhalin Energy consortium, according to the western gray whale expert panel report.

Only 150 Pacific gray whales alive

Concerns had been raised over the platform's potential impact on western north Pacific gray whales, of which only an estimated 150 animals remain. WWF and other organizations have campaigned to stop the platform from being built by targeting both the oil company and the banks that are the main investors to the project, and see this as a successful outcome.

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Whale watchers get ready as Pacific gray migration begins

The annual Pacific gray whale migration has begun in Southern California and whale watchers are already excited about the number of sightings near the South Bay this week.

About 100 Cabrillo Marine Aquarium volunteer naturalists climbed aboard the Redondo Beach Voyager Wednesday morning at the unofficial start of the local whale-watching season. It was too windy for the boat to venture out to areas where the gray whales might be spotted, but there are already indications that lots of the 50-foot-long mammals will be seen through the end of the season in May.

"Last season, our gray whales migrated closer to shore and our counts were quite high," said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, director of the annual gray whale census count at Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes. "The migration started earlier than usual. This year, the same thing may be happening."

The census, sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Cetacean Society, has been taking place since 1979. Last season, volunteer census takers posted at the interpretive center counted a record 672 southbound and 1,133 northbound gray whales from December to May.

Each winter, the whales swim south in one of the longest known mammalian migrations. On the 14,000-mile round-trip, they go without food as they seek out warm lagoons in Baja, Mexico, to give birth and mate. They must give birth in warm water because their babies are not born with enough blubber to insulate them against the cold Alaskan seas.

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