Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) may be at a tipping point in their history as thousands have died throughout their North American range. Between 2019 and 2025 a minimum of 1,235 gray whales have stranded dead along the Pacific coast of North America from Baja California Sur in Mexico to Alaska, nearly 8-times the previous 10-year average stranding frequency. In response the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared in 2019 an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) for the Eastern North Pacific gray whale population and began to investigate the increased number of mortalities (NOAA 2024). NOAA has estimated the population declined from an estimated 26,960 whales in the 2015/2016 winter to 14,525 by the 2023/2024 winter as the result of multiple consecutive years of the increased mortality rate.

Beginning in 2018 Gray Whale Research in Mexico (GWRM) scientists working in Laguna San Ignacio and the Bahía Magdalena lagoon complex, in Baja California Sur, Mexico reported increasing percentages of "skinny" or "malnourished" whales in these lagoons, at a time when whales that supposedly had recently completed a summer of feeding in the Arctic portion of their range and should be healthy and in good condition. These increased sightings of emaciated whales have been accompanied by increased mortalities within these wintering areas and throughout the Pacific and Gulf of California coasts of the Baja California peninsula. Additionally counts of female whales with newborn calves that usually number in the hundreds during the winter months have continually declined each year since 2018 to less than 20 pairs counted annually in both the Laguna San Ignacio and Bahía Magdalena wintering areas combined. In total, these observations suggest a trend of declining viability of the Eastern North Pacific gray whale population.

Here we report on the status of gray whales and trends in their body condition, declining calf counts, abundance, and strandings in Laguna San Ignacio and the Bahia Magdalena lagoon complex during the 2025 winter breeding season.

This work took place in Laguna San Ignacio from January 15^th to March 31^st, 2025, and in the Bahía Magdalena lagoon complex (Bahía Magdalena, Bahía Almejas, and the Canal de López Mateos) from January 18^th to March 24^th, 2025. 

Click here to read entire 2025 report