Shrimp: The Stray Gray IN Oro Bay

During the fall, gray whales make their migration from northern waters down to their winter grounds in Baja California, and again in reverse in the spring (March-May). A group called “The Sounders” have been studied expensively since the 1990s as they have stopped annually to feed in the North Puget Sound around the southern ends of Whidbey and Camano Island, Saratoga Passage, Port Susan, Gedney/Hat Island, and the Snohomish Delta. 

Gray whales visit the south Sound from time to time, but historically those who spend a lot of time here aren’t in good health and are likely lost, disoriented, and not finding enough sustenance. So far, no research has shown a rich feeding area this far south.

Park commissioners John Larsen and Belen Schneider led the AIPRD effort to check daily for Shrimp’s presence. Belen, an Orca Network volunteer, reached out first to that organization to discuss the whale, since their sightings archives had recorded gray whale sightings around Anderson Island as early as November 7th. They confirmed that because of potential health concern for this gray whale, they were keeping sightings off the general sighting network and reporting all sightings to NOAA, Cascadia Research Collective and local stranding networks.

Belen also reached out to contacts at Cascadia Research Collective and the Nisqually Reach Nature Center to discuss monitoring the whale and assessing its health. 

One researcher from CRC offered this summary of gray whales in Puget Sound to set expectations:

"We have some areas (Sounders gray whales around Whidbey Island or gray whales feeding herring spawn off in major spawning grounds) where gray whales have learned to take advantage of a seasonally abundant prey resource and return annually. More commonly, however, we have gray whales that stray off the migration often in not very good condition that then appear to stay in an area for extended periods and going through the motions of feeding, but there is neither much prey there for them nor do they return annually. At this point for this one individual the jury is out but I think it is likely the latter of these two scenarios."

  The overall feedback on body condition was that Shrimp was thin, but not “skinny”, which is the danger word for emaciated gray whales. Belen took reference photos of Shrimp and laid them out alongside reference photos of healthy and skinny grays. (Click the image to view larger.) 

These comparison photos can help us see where Shrimp was showing signs of being thin - there are slight concavities behind Shrimp’s blowhole, where a healthy whale would essentially have a straight line from its blowhole to its back. Unable to get arial shots, it’s hard to assess how Shrimps overall girth looked, but there seemed to be some concavity along the spine.

However, this whale wasn’t in bad health and was very active, indicating that if it left the south Sound to join the gray whale migration south, it may have a decent shot.

Was Shrimp’s 10-day visit the result of this young whale actually finding enough variety of food to enable a return north and out of Puget Sound to resume migration – or at least get to the feeding-rich areas of the North Puget Sound grays? 

It’s a question we won’t know the answer to for some time, if ever. But because of the curiosity and effort of Anderson Island residents, we now have data about this whale who was not previously part of known ID materials, awareness of the possibility of a richer feeding ground in the South Puget Sound, and a starting point to engage researchers if we see the return of grays to our bay. If we do, the Oro Bay may get the kind of research attention that will give us more insight into the robustness of the tiniest denizens of our waters and how they sustain even the largest of creatures.

This unexpected event reinvigorated our community’s curiosity and awareness of the beings in our water and the ecosystems that support them. We’ve never seen so many people hiking Jacob’s Point in the winter! And social media was full of questions about Shrimp, calling this little gray whale by name as the neighbor s/he had become. 

Orca, humpbacks, grays, and even fin whales come into our waters, in addition to all the other marine life that builds on one another, from phyto- and zooplankton all the way up to these megafauna. Anderson Island Park & Recreation District is thrilled to be a part of connecting residents and visitors to the wonders of our marine neighbors!