Central PugetSound Marine Mammal Stranding Network

Who’s Minding the Kids?

Lots of Stranding Network volunteers and local residents it seems!

By “kids” we're referring to the young elephant seals born right here on Whidbey Island, in the Salish Sea region of Washington State.

Ellison, our first known elephant seal pup to be born on Whidbey Island, will be five years old; and sister Elsie Mae will be two years old in March 2020. Both were born to "Ellie" a female elephant seal who has been coming back to Whidbey every spring to molt and give birth on the same westside island beach and observed by our Stranding Network staff and volunteers for years. 

The two offspring have distinctly different personalities, and as they grow, will look quite different as well. Ellison, being the male, is already quite large with the notorious "big nose" of male elephant seals beginning to show. They both have become quite famous, as the neighborhoods they visit are filled with citizens who love and watch over them to make sure they are not being harassed.

Ellison seems to be a “homebody” spending a great deal of time on his favorite beach on a very small island just off Whidbey Island, surrounded by much smaller harbor seals where he is relatively safe from human interaction.  He has been recorded on the beach for 138 days from January through October so far this year. A recent photo of him shows that he is beginning to develop the large proboscis (or inflatable nose) of an adult male elephant seal - at adulthood his nose will overhang his lower lip by about eight inches! He is getting larger too - fully adult males can reach up to 13 feet in length and a weight of 4,400 pounds. Male Elephant seals have a lifespan of ~13 years, and at about age nine or ten, males typically form "harems" of females in areas where large numbers of elephant seals haul out. It will be interesting to see if Ellison continues to remain in his more solitary life on Whidbey, or travel further south in search of females to mate with as he gets older. 

Elsie Mae, on the other hand, is a “party animal” and seems to love people (not usually a good thing for a marine mammal). She has been tagged by WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife shortly after she was born, with tag #1285, so she is easy to track. She has been observed and confirmed on at least four different islands in our region during her first year and a half, and attended at least one wedding on each of those islands! She spent several weeks in a marina community attending weddings, parties and picnics and becoming a constant concern to our pup sitting volunteers who had to maintain safe distances between her - a wild animal - and eager visitors, for the safety of all. 

With the help of WDFW, our stranding network finally had to relocate Elsie from that busy location, between the large number of people there and the nearby road she kept waddling into, stopping traffic. But she immediately left the remote beach she was relocated to, and shortly afterward showed up on a neighboring island where she attended public events at one state park before moving on to another, causing the same concerns.

We credit Elsie Mae with being an “ambassador for her species” giving the excited public a once in a lifetime chance to observe and learn from such an unusual and entertaining animal. A recent photo of Elsie Mae posing in one of her yoga positions at the last park she visited is included - she is so cute, we can't help but have our hearts melted by her face and antics!  We are all very fortunate that CPSMMSN volunteer Sammye watched over Elsie and educated park visitors during her recent stay, and captured a video of Elsie finally departing the park, after struggling to get over the logs on the beach (see video link below). As Elsie continues to grow, she will reach a length of about 10 feet and a weight of 1,300 pounds at adulthood. Female elephant seals have a lifespan of about 19 years. 

Thanks to your support, our Central Puget Sound Marine Mammal Stranding Network has been able to track and document this first known family of elephant seals on Whidbey Island, and each year we get to know them better, and in the process educate hundreds of people and collect data useful for agencies such as NOAA Fisheries and WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. Our staff and volunteers are working on a book about this elephant seal family, and each year we are provided more wonderful photographs and stories to add to the tale. As people learn more about these individual elephant seals, they also learn about the species, and about the changing ecosystem which has brought about changes in species present in our local and regional waters. We hope you too have enjoyed getting to know Ellison and Elsie Mae!

Links:

• Elsie the Elephant seal leaves the State Park, Sammye Kempbell
• Visit our Orca Network website's Marine Mammal Stranding page!
• NOAA Fisheries webpage on Elephant Seals

Orca Network's Central Puget Sound Marine Mammal Stranding Network, as well as our Whale Sighting Network, have been busy all year assisting NOAA Fisheries, researchers, and other regional Stranding Networks in tracking emaciated gray whales throughout the Salish Sea, and being on call for live or dead stranded gray whales in our stranding region (Island, Skagit and N. Snohomish counties) and beyond. 

Beginning last year, we started to see signs that the gray whale population was not doing well. On our annual trip to San Ignacio Lagoon in March 2018, there were fewer gray whales in the mating/birthing lagoons, and fewer calves being born. In North Puget Sound, where we help monitor a small population of gray whales known as the "Sounders" or North Puget Sound Grays, we had several "new" whales show up in the spring of 2018, to feed on ghost shrimp along with the 10 - 12 regulars who come into North Puget Sound each March - May. That has happened in the past, but usually during years where the food supplies up north in the Bering Sea summer feeding grounds is sparse. What was even more unusual was that several of these new gray whales didn't leave North Puget Sound when the "Sounders" left in late spring - and one of them was still in the area feeding when the Sounders returned in the spring of 2019! This was something Cascadia Research had never seen before in their 30+ years of research, nor had we, in our 20+ years of tracking the gray whales in Puget Sound. 

Spring of 2019 also brought in more "new" whales to North Puget Sound, and many emaciated gray whales  who wandered into the inland waters in search of food, often turning south into Puget Sound waters, some of them dying there. As of this date, we still have at least one gray whale remaining in the area, feeding off the northwest shores of Whidbey Island, months after the others have headed north. On our March 2019 trip to San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja we also observed more "skinny" gray whales, and fewer mom/calf pairs - and according to NOAA Fisheries, 50-55% of the free-ranging whales observed in the birthing and mating lagoons in Mexico this winter were reported as “skinny” compared to the annual average of 10-12% “skinny” whales normally seen. Fortunately the mother whales we did see with calves, looked healthy and well fed.

On May 29, 2019, NOAA Fisheries declared an "Unusual Mortality Event" gray whales (warning - this website contains photos of deceased gray whales, but is the only site with complete and constantly updated info. about this issue) - at that time a total of 147 dead whales had been reported, with ~73 dead whales in Mexico, 69 whales in the U.S. (37 in CA; 3 in OR; 24 in WA, 5 in AK), and 5 whales in British Columbia, Canada. For the U.S., the historical 18-year 5-month average (Jan-May) is 14.8 whales for the four states for this same time-period.

As of Sept. 5, 2019, the numbers total 208, with 81 in Mexico; 117 in the US (37 in CA; 6 in OR; 34 in WA; 40 in AK); and 10 in Canada. See NOAA Fisheries chart below for comparison by month to the 18 year  average number of gray whale strandings.

Common findings include emaciation in both dead and live free-ranging whales, but the investigation continues with a research team who is examining reports and lab results from the stranded whales who are  in fresh enough condition to be necropsied and samples tested. Declaring an Unusual Mortality Event (or UME), brings more focus and resources to help the investigation, including significant expertise of a Working Group and an Investigative Team, and assistance from stranding network partners, including volunteer organizations such as CPSMMSN, to respond to gray whale strandings. The UME also triggers the development of a response plan and makes available additional resources to respond to further strandings.

We have not had any gray whale strandings in our region as of yet this year, but one stranded in Everett, WA, just beyond our region, and another who stranded in Seattle was towed to Whidbey Island for necropsy by Cascadia Research and WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. CPSMMSN members observed the necropsy, and a team of our volunteers was allowed to collect baleen for educational purposes, and one of the pectoral fins for display at our Langley Whale Center. Once decomposed, cleaned up and re-articulated, the pec fin will show 1) how LARGE gray whale pec fins are, and 2) how very similar they are to our own human hands. Each spring we observe gray whales feeding on ghost shrimp in our mudflats, so we often see one pec fin extended way above the water as they lie on their side to scoop and suck up the shrimp-filled mud. 

The last gray whale UME took place in 1999/2000, and coincidentally one of the grays who stranded on Whidbey Island is what got our current CPSMMSN started 20 years ago! A group of us responded to volunteer when this whale stranded, and we decided to retrieve the entire skeleton and re-articulate it - and that whale, "Rosie" is still on display at the Coupeville Wharf on Whidbey Island, complete with the baleen installed in the upper jaws, and has educated tens of thousands of visitors to Coupeville about the size, history, and grace of our gray whales. 

As you can see from the last chart below, which compares the current UME to the one that occurred in 1999/2000, we are likely going to see further strandings in the year ahead, and stranding networks such as CPSMMSN are gearing up to be prepared for an increase in the number of gray whale strandings, which is made more difficult given many Stranding Networks (like ours) do not receive any federal or state funds to support the work we do, so support from donors like YOU are very much appreciated! 

Thanks so very much for your interest and support ~ 

Links:

• NOAA Gray whale UME website (WARNING - contains graphic photos)
• Cascadia Research report on July whale stranding(graphic photos)
• Visit our Orca Network & CPSMMSN website to learn more