In a warming Arctic, gray whales struggle to find nourishment

RAYMOND, Wash. — Doug Nussbaum is a retired logger whose morning rituals include a walk down to the bluff behind his house that overlooks a bend in the Willapa River.

He is never quite sure just what he will spot — ducks, bald eagles and sometimes seals and sea lions pursuing salmon. On April 1, he heard a breeching sound, then was stunned to see a gray whale — some 35 feet in length — swimming in circles.

This whale, skinny and malnourished, had gone catastrophically astray on a spring migration that, for most grays, starts in calving lagoons in Mexico and ends in summer feeding grounds off Alaska and northeast Russia.

For some two hours, the whale held in the bend, about 12 river miles inland from a saltwater bay. As the tide shifted, the whale made a brief push downstream, then reversed course to swim even farther upstream, lingering several days before dying in a shallow, narrow stretch of the river strewn with woody debris.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/06/07/repub/in-a-warming-arctic-gray-whales-struggle-to-find-nourishment/