GRAY WHALE POPULATION DECLINE - WHALE COUNT 2020-2021 SEASON

PHYS ORG NEWS : GRAY WHALE POOULATION DECLINE 

EXCERPT:  NOAA Fisheries reported that surveys counted about 6,000 fewer migrating whales last winter, 21,000 as compared with 27,000 in 2016.

The agency declared an "unusual mortality event" in 2019 as dozens of gray whales washed up on Pacific Ocean beaches.

IS SEA GRASS THE NATURAL SOLUTION TO PLASTIC POLLUTION?

PHYS ORG SEA GRASS and PLASTIC 

EXCERPT: There are some 70 species of marine seagrass, grouped in several families of flowering plants that - originally on land - recolonized the ocean some80 to 100 million years ago.

Growing from the Artic to the tropics, most speies hae long, grass-like leaves that can form vast unerwater meadows.

They are more than just pretty, however.

They play a vital role in improving water quality, absorb CO2 and exude oxygen, and are a natural nursery and refuge for hundreds of species of fish.

GREY WHALE DEATHS LINKED TO CLIMATE CHANGE and WARMER OCEAN TEMPERATURES

PHYS ORG : GRAY WHALE DEATHS -STRANDED WHALES
by Lynda V. Mapes.

EXCERPT: As if gray whales didn't already have enough troubles, with transient killer whales preying on their calves as the mighty grays swim north in their annual migration from their birthing lagoons in Baja.  But now, gray whale mothers in particular, depleted by the demands of lactation, are starving too.