{"id":622551,"date":"2026-04-23T04:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/622551\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:24:11","slug":"4-grey-whales-found-dead-in-10-days-near-vancouver-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/622551\/","title":{"rendered":"4 grey whales found dead in 10 days near Vancouver Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fishery officials are looking into the deaths of four grey whales that were discovered off Vancouver Island over the span of just 10 days.<\/p>\n

Experts say it is an unusually high number of mortalities, though it\u2019s a trend also being seen in Washington State.<\/p>\n

The bodies were located near Bamfield, Barkley Sound, Clayoquot and Sidney.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo of those four dead gray whales were extremely emaciated. Never seen such poor body condition,\u201d said Paul Cottrell, marine mammal coordinator with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the necropsy that we did most recently in Sidney, B.C. the animal had Cyamidae, which are whale lice, which they normally have. But there was an infestation when the body condition gets really poor, it actually can eat the animal alive, and it was quite disturbing to see the poor shape of this animal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Of the four recent grey whale deaths, three were male and one was female. In total, there have been five grey whale deaths in B.C. since the start of the year, putting it on track to beat the record of 11 grey whale deaths recorded in B.C. over an entire year in 2019.<\/p>\n

Grey whale body condition on the decline<\/p>\n

Wendy Szaniszlo with the DFO\u2019s cetacean research program says the body condition of grey whales has been on the decline for several years.<\/p>\n

Using drones, DFO is looking to track specific whales over time \u201cto see how the body condition changes from season to season and year to year,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as you can imagine, what we\u2019ve found over the past few years has been poor body condition, which is quite a concerning trend of what this means for the gray whales their health,\u201d said Szaniszlo.<\/p>\n

She attributes some of the malnutrition to a lack of prey in the arctic. Grey whales migrate from warmer waters in Mexico in the winter to as far away as Alaska in the summer.<\/p>\n

\"\"A grey whale is pictured in Barkley Sound on April 17, 2026. (DFO)\"\"A grey whale is pictured in Barkley Sound on April 17, 2026. (DFO)<\/p>\n

With warmer winters and ice melting earlier in the year in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, prey that grey whales generally feed on is becoming less abundant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe changing water temperatures has affected the prey availability, and there hasn\u2019t been as much prey, or the quality has been down. So that has contributed, it\u2019s thought, to the malnutrition and the decreased birth rates and the deaths that we\u2019re seeing right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Grey whale populations on the decline<\/p>\n

Grey whale populations have trended up and down over the past several decades, but recently numbers have been on the decline, according to Cottrell.<\/p>\n

The population has dropped by about 50 per cent over the past decade, from a peak of 28,000 in 2016 to 14,00 in 2024.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the U.S. issued a grey whale unusual mortality event, triggering researchers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to monitor grey whales and standardize some research and necropsy practices in 2019.<\/p>\n

Populations continued to decline until 2024, at which point the unusual mortality event designation was removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unfortunate thing is that in 2025 and currently in 2026, we\u2019re seeing even more of a decrease in that population,\u201d said Cottrell.<\/p>\n

There are\u00a0three types of grey whale populations<\/a>, according to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).<\/p>\n

The Pacific Coast Feeding Group and Western Pacific populations are both considered endangered, while the Northern Pacific Migratory population is considered \u201cnot at risk,\u201d according to COSEWIC\u2019s latest assessment in 2017.<\/p>\n

RELATED: MERS warns of \u2018high collision risk\u2019 after grey whale sightings near Port McNeill<\/a><\/p>\n

Both Cottrell and Szaniszlo say they\u2019re grateful for the assistance of local First Nations \u2013 including the Huu-ay-aht, Kyuquot\/Cheklesahht, and W\u0331S\u00c1NE\u0106 nations \u2013 for their help locating the whales and assisting with the necropsies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, Szaniszlo says more research is needed to help protect grey whales in British Columbia and in feeding grounds north and south of the Canadian border.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite a bit of work has been done in Clayoquot and Barkley Sound, so southwest Vancouver Island, trying to understand gray whales and their ecology. But there\u2019s a lot we don\u2019t know in Central and Northern British Columbia,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it is quite important to continue this work, and we\u2019re collaborating with colleagues in the United States, in Washington and Oregon, as well as in Tofino area as well, with the hope that if we\u2019re using the same protocols and sharing the data, we can better understand what\u2019s going on with these animals, and therefore try to help protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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