Some experts have cited pollutants in the ocean as the cause of the sudden increase in dead gray whales. They say that pollutants such as cyanide are responsible. Others blame a desalinization plant in Guerro Negro for killing the whales.
Bruce Mate, who is working on an Oregon Sea Grant, said that the problem might be that the whales' food supply is becoming limited.
Gray whales typically eat everything for the year while they are in the Bering Strait. They do not eat during their migration, and only begin eating again once they have returned to Alaska.
As a result, the whales go 3-5 months without additional food. Mate says that it is possible that during the summers, the whales are not storing up enough
food to last them throughout the winter while they are away from the north. He cites changes in the food chain and possible major changes in the ecosystem as the cause of the whales' decreased diet.
Every year, the gray whales must make a 12,000-mile migration from Alaska to the Baja Peninsula without eating. The journey is the longest made by any marine mammal.
