Range-Wide Comparison of Gray Whale Body Condition Reveals Contrasting Sub-Population Health Characteristics and Vulnerability to Environmental Change
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Climate change is a global phenomenon, yet impacts on resource availability to predators may be spatially and temporally diverse and asynchronous. As capital breeders, whales are dependent on dense, predictable prey resources during foraging seasons. An Unusual Mortality Event (UME) of Eastern North Pacific (ENP) gray whales ( Eschrichtius robustus ) was declared in 2019 due to a dramatic rise in stranded animals, many emaciated. Climate change impacts may have affected prey availability on the primary foraging grounds of ENP gray whales (~20,000 individuals) in the Arctic and sub-Arctic region and in coastal habitats between northern California, USA and British Columbia, Canada where a small sub-group of ENP whales called the Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG; ~230 individuals) forages. To investigate variability of gray whale body condition relative to changing ocean conditions, we compare two datasets of gray whale aerial photogrammetry images collected via Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) on the ENP wintering grounds in San Ignacio Lagoon, Mexico (SIL; n=111) and on the PCFG feeding grounds in Oregon, USA (n=72) over the same three-year period (2017–2019). We document concurrent body condition improvement of PCFG whales in Oregon while body condition of whales in SIL declined. This result indicates that the UME may have affected ENP whales due to reduced energetic gain on some Arctic/sub-Arctic foraging grounds, while PCFG whales are recovering from poor prey conditions during the NE Pacific marine heatwave event of 2014–2016. Surprisingly, we found that PCFG whales in Oregon had significantly worse body condition than whales in SIL, even when accounting for year and phenology. We derive support for this unexpected finding via photogrammetry analysis of opportunistic aerial images of gray whales on Arctic foraging grounds (n=18) compared to PCFG whales in Oregon (n=30): the body condition of PCFG whales was significantly lower (t=2.96, p=0.005), which may cause PCFG whales to have reduced reproductive capacity or resilience to environmental perturbations compared to ENP whales. Overall, our study elucidates divergent gray whale body condition across sub-groups and time, and we demonstrate the value of UAS to effectively monitor and identify the physiological response of whales to climate change.
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PCFG whales had significantly worse body condition than other EBS whales during most years.
“Torres et al. (2022) compared the body condition of PCFG whales with whales photographed in San Ignacio Lagoon and in the north-western Chukchi Sea, concluding that PCFG whales had significantly worse body condition than other EBS whales during most years.”
From Update on the status of gray whales since the 2020 Implementation Review (2024) · cites this paper as Torres et al., 2022
The Discussion (p. 8) says PCFG whales in Oregon were regularly and significantly in worse body condition than whales photographed in San Ignacio Lagoon and the northeastern Chukchi Sea. The Results (p. 7) also report a significant difference from the Chukchi Sea sample. The paper describes the comparison whales as ENP whales, however, not specifically as EBS whales, so that population designation is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredTorres et al. (2022) found that body condition of Pacific Coast Feeding Group gray whales improved each year from 2017 to 2019.
“Torres et al. (2022) also evaluated the drone-derived body condition of PCFG gray whales observed off Oregon and found that their body condition improved each year from 2017 to 2019.”
From Update on the status of gray whales since the 2020 Implementation Review (2024) · cites this paper as Torres et al., 2022
The conclusions of Lemos et al. (2020) and Torres et al. (2022) are somewhat conflicting regarding environmental conditions for gray whales prior to 2017.
“The conclusions of Lemos et al. (2020) and Torres et al. (2022) are somewhat conflicting, with the latter implying that environmental conditions (namely the marine heat wave) were worse for gray whales prior to 2017, whereas the former reported that upwelling conditions were better for whales in the same area in 2016 than 2017-18.”
From Update on the status of gray whales since the 2020 Implementation Review (2024) · cites this paper as Torres et al., 2022
Although Torres et al. (2022) found that PCFG whales often have poorer body condition than other EBS gray whales and suggested that they have lower reproductive potential, this was already accounted for in the 2020 IR which included trials with an MSYR of 2% for PCFG whales.
“Although Torres et al. (2022) found that PCFG whales often have poorer body condition than other EBS gray whales and suggested that they have lower reproductive potential, this was already accounted for in the 2020 IR which included trials with an MSYR of 2% for PCFG whales.”
From Update on the status of gray whales since the 2020 Implementation Review (2024) · cites this paper as Torres et al., 2022
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Sumich, J. L., Albertson, G. R., Torres, L. G., Bird, C. N., Bierlich, K. C., & Harris, C. (2023) · Marine Mammal Science · doi:10.1111/mms.13081 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationColefax, A. P., Walsh, A., Purcell, C. R., & Butcher, P. A. (2023) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s23229193 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Linsky, J. M. J., Dunlop, R. A., Noad, M. J., & McMichael, L. (2024) · Marine Environmental Research · doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106596 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Drone photogrammetry reveals contrasting body conditions of dugongs across the Indo‐Pacific
Goudalier, C., Mouillot, D., Bernagou, L., Boksmati, T., Bristol, C., Clark, H., Herandarudewi, S. M. C., Hocdé, R., Koester, A., McIvor, A. J., et al. (2025) · Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation · doi:10.1002/rse2.70016 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
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Intermittent upwelling impacts zooplankton and their gray whale predators at multiple scales
Dawn, A. H., Hildebrand, L., Sullivan, F. A., Barlow, D., & Torres, L. G. (2024) · Marine Ecology Progress Series · doi:10.3354/meps14721 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationA workflow of open-source tools for drone-based photogrammetry of marine megafauna
Bierlich, K. C., Hewitt, J., Bird, C. N., Johnston, D. W., Dale, J., Pirotta, E., Schick, R. S., Stewart, J. D., New, L., Chimienti, E., et al. (2025) · PeerJ · doi:10.7717/peerj.19768 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationPirotta, E., New, L., Ajó, A. F., Bierlich, K. C., Bird, C. N., Buck, C. L., Hildebrand, L., Hunt, K. E., Calambokidis, J., & Torres, L. G. (2025) · Journal of Animal Ecology · doi:10.1111/1365-2656.70068 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationBlázquez, M., Massett, N., O’Callaghan, S. A., Hogan, M., López‐Suárez, P., Lopes, K., Whooley, P., O’Brien, J. M., Wenzel, F. W., O’Connor, I., et al. (2025) · Frontiers in Marine Science · doi:10.3389/fmars.2025.1604106 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Roussouw, N., Froneman, P. W., Weltz, K., Venter, K., Conry, D. S., Smale, M. J., & Plön, S. (2025) · Ecological Indicators · doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.114442 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Deep Learning for Automated Shark Detection and Biometrics Without Keypoints
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McHuron, E., Sweeney, K., & Fadely, B. S. (2024) · Marine Ecology Progress Series · doi:10.3354/meps14584 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Charlton, C. M., Christiansen, F., Ward, R., Mackay, A., Andrews-Goff, V. L., Zerbini, A. N., Childerhouse, S., Guggenheimer, S., O’Shannessy, B., & Brownell, R. (2023) · Diseases of Aquatic Organisms · doi:10.3354/dao03730 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Self-citationUpdate on the status of gray whales since the 2020 Implementation Review
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“Although Torres et al .”
InfluentialSize and body condition drive the energetic cost of a baleen whale foraging in shallow habitat
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Self-citationDrones Applied to Cetacean Research: A Case Study of Fin Whales
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Towards sustainability and beyond with Ocean Health Science
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Gray Whale Eschrichtius robustus (Lilljeborg, 1861)
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Self-citationGray Whale Energy Requirements
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Self-citationEnergetic scaling of propulsive costs across body sizes in humpback whales
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Self-citationHildebrand, L., Pirotta, E., Stewart, J. D., New, L., Bierlich, K. C., Bird, C. N., Ajó, A. F., & Torres, L. G. (2026) · Marine Ecology Progress Series · doi:10.3354/meps15214
Self-citationA Computer Vision Framework for Estimating Body Size and Condition in Multiple Cetacean Species
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Self-citationUsing Aerial Photogrammetry to Estimate Body Condition and Assess Sexual Dimorphism in Narwhals
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- Authors
- Torres, L. G., Bird, C. N., Rodríguez-González, F., Christiansen, F., Bejder, L., Lemos, L., Urban R, J., Swartz, S., Willoughby, A., Hewitt, J., & Bierlich, K.
- Affiliations
- Oregon State University (US)
- Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur (MX)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Torres, Leigh G.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Frontiers in Marine Science
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2022-04-19
- Volume
- 9
- ISSN
- 2296-7745 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4224251062
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 5.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Marine Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- NOAA Institutional Repository (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Oregon State University
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Oregon Sea Grant, Oregon State University (RECO‐40‐PD)
- Office of Science
- National Marine Fisheries Service (50-27)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Marine animal studies overview
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Marine and fisheries research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Keywords
- gray whale, body condition, climate change impacts, unusual mortality event, San Ignacio Lagoon, aerial photogrammetry, marine heatwaves, prey availability, capital breeding, reproductive capacity
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