Dear list members
Apologies for cross-posting , the paper below has just become available online on Marine Biodiversity Records:
Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) in the Mediterranean Sea: anomalous event or early sign of climate-driven distribution change?
Aviad P. Scheinin1, Dan Kerem1, Colin D. Macleod2, Manel Gazo3,4, Carla A. Chicote3 and Manuel Castellote5
1Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center (IMMRAC), The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies and
Department for Maritime Civilizations, The University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel, 2IBES, University of Aberdeen,
Aberdeen, UK, 3SUBMON—Conservation, study and awareness of the marine environment, Rabassa, 49-51. 08024 Barcelona, Spain,
4Department of Animal Biology, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 645, 08028 Barcelona, Spain, 5National Marine Mammal
Laboratory, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA, Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 USA
Abstract:
On 8 May 2010, a gray whale was sighted off the Israeli Mediterranean shore and twenty-two days later, the same individual
was sighted in Spanish Mediterranean waters. Since gray whales were last recorded in the North Atlantic in the 1700s, these
sightings prompted much speculation about this whale’s population origin. Here, we consider three hypotheses for the origin of
this individual: (1) it represents a vagrant individual from the larger extant population of gray whales found in the eastern
North Pacific; (2) it represents a vagrant individual from the smaller extant population found in the western North Pacific; or
(3) it represents an individual from the previously thought extinct North Atlantic population. We believe that the first is the
most likely, based on current population sizes, on known summer distributions, on the extent of cetacean monitoring in the
North Atlantic and on the results of a performed route analysis. While it is difficult to draw conclusions from such singular
events, the occurrence of this individual in the Mediterranean coincides with a shrinking of Arctic Sea ice due to climate
change and suggests that climate change may allow gray whales to re-colonize the North Atlantic as ice and temperature
barriers to mixing between northern North Atlantic and North Pacific biomes are reduced. Such mixing, if it were to
become widespread, would have implications for many aspects of the marine conservation and ecology of these two regions.
Keywords: global warming, climate change, migration, vagrancy, sea ice, ecosystem sentinels
The article can be downloaded from Marine Biodiversity Records (Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom):
Otherwise please contact me for a copy: scheinin@013.net.il.
For those of you missing the ECS video night in Cadiz here is the Gray whale short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9IY58s9uGg
Happy Passover
Aviad
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Aviad Scheinin, Ph.D
scheinin@013.net.il
Chairman, IMMRAC - Israel Marine Mammal Research & Assistance center
ECS (European Cetacean Society) council member
Home address: Tirat Shalom, P.B. 1356, Nes-Ziona 74052, Israel
Tel 972-8-9406584 Mobile 052-3571193
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