Gray whales, once protected and recovering after the Marine Mammal Protection Act and a global whaling ban, are now starving and at risk of extinction due to climate-driven changes in Arctic feeding grounds and dwindling food sources.

From 2019 through 2025, NOAA declared an unusual mortality event with at least 1,235 gray whale strandings along the West Coast, eight times the prior decade’s average, with partial recovery in 2024 but renewed high casualties in 2025.

NOAA’s 2019 designation in California announced an unusual mortality event tied to the broader pattern of strandings across the West Coast from 2019 to 2025.

Observations from whale researchers note dwindling calf counts and altered predator-prey dynamics in Baja California lagoons, highlighting conservation concerns.

Sightings of large numbers of gray whales near California shores are raising alarms about health and climate-change impacts on marine ecosystems.

The author calls for a clean, carbon-free energy future as a hopeful path for gray whales and other marine life, while acknowledging ongoing stewardship challenges.

Eastern gray whale numbers rose to about 27,000 by 2016 but have fallen by more than half to roughly 12,950 in the past nine years, the lowest since the 1970s, signaling increasing extinction risk amid changing oceans and Arctic ice.

Calves are at record-low counts as more whales crowd estuaries like San Francisco Bay, heightening ship-strike risk and starvation mortality, with nine confirmed ship-strike deaths and 12 starvation deaths recorded in the bay.

While public sentiment shifted from hunting to viewing and protecting whales, human activities and policy decisions continue to threaten their survival.

California gray whales historically recovered after protections enacted in the 1970s, later reaching about 27,000 by 2016, underscoring the fragility of gains in the face of climate pressures.

The article ties gray-whale decline to broader climate-change impacts and gaps in policy progress, urging a shift toward clean, carbon-free energy to aid recovery and reduce environmental harm.

Retreating sea ice reduces under-ice algae, shrinking amphipod prey in Arctic summers and driving malnutrition that limits calf production and increases starvation risks.