I have a passion for endangered species. I do what can possibly be for like-minded organizations. The Gray Whale was I admit a bit lower in my wishlist. I was more involved in ‘save the tiger’ projects.
This was just after the catastrophic tsunami of 25th December 2011. My ship, under the Dutch flag, was commissioned for an operation in the Sea of Okhotsk off Sakhalin. The job was to make a trench for Exxon to plant one of their rigs to suck out oil.
I checked out the area and much to my dismay learned it was the breeding ground of the endangered Californian Gray Whale.
Serenity and Tranquilty
We arrived at our field of operations located in the southern part of the Okhotsk. The ice shelf was breaking off still and it was so serene that beauty. Floes the size of a football ground languidly drifted out to sea.
That was the only time the locals came by to say hello.
The Okhotsk is the last breeding ground for the gray whale. This beautiful sea mammal is an omnivore that can grow to a length of 50 feet and can weigh anything between 30 to 40 tons.
The gray whale is an imposing giant. They kept their distance at best a couple of hundred meters or so.
And within a week the rest of the dredgers, a beast of an underwater pipeline laying vessel, tugs, barges pulled in. Work began.
Wall Street was on another roll. The beautiful gray whale had little option and slunk back into the depths. I silently moaned the loss of yet another animal paradise.
But there is always a chink where the light shines in. Recent developments point that way. The last census has placed them in the LC (least concerned) category. For more go to:
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/science-data/gray-whales-eastern-north-pacific
I had contributed once on somewhat these lines about Lake Walker, Nevada- more on this at Portfolio
One Comment