GRAY WHALES DIE OF MALNUTRITION IN PACIFIC

ARE WHALES STARVING THE RESULT OF THE NEAR ONE MILLION TONS OF  INSECTICIDE (IMIDACLOPRID) WE HAVE SPRAYED SINCE 1980 ?

I read with concern (Gray Whales Starving to Death in Pacific, Leila Miller, Seattle Times-on line—May 3, 2019 ) that scientists studying the Gray whale along the Pacific coast have reported higher standings and mortality  numbers (31 to date)  of this species  usual for this time of the year.  But more concerning is the fact that necropsies on the whales have concluded that many of them died from malnutrition.  The dead whales were skinny.  Other live whales observed at sea were also reported as “skinny”.  What could be the cause?  Malnutrition in a species that lives in a vast throughly mixed marine environment could be a sign of underlying ecological changes.  the Gray whale is an important indicator species which can elucidate the health of the ocean in general. 

Grays or California Gray Whales (Eschrichtius robustas) are baleen or filter-feeder whales which feed mostly on small Crustacea, commonly critters such as amphipods , isopods, mysids as well as shrimp.  They inhabit the coastal waters of the eastern Pacific from Mexico to the waters of the Arctic. While another (endangered)  group inhabit the western coasts of the Pacific from the bays around the Kamchatka peninsula south into the Sea of Japan.  In thee zones, close to the shore,  they dive to depths of as little as 10-60 feet (and as deep as 200 feet). On the ocean bed they slide onto their side, open their mouths and using their tongues to create a suction “vacuum”  up the surface mud and any bottom dwelling shrimp and amphipods in the mud.  They then use their tongues again to force the slurry of mud and water past the baleen filters in their oral cavities  for trap the small crustaceans which they favor for food.  They also feed opportunistically in the upper levels of the water column for other pelagic crustaceans such as shrimp, krill, squid and small fish.  But they are specialized to feed on the bottom.  Scientists have even observed that individuals may be either “right” or left” sided  They can telll which side these individuals prefer to fish on by the fact that the normally widely dispersed barnacle and encrusting sea life on their skins does not appear on the side of their heads which they prefer to scrape on the bottom.  

This possibility of a wide ranging species of marine mammal which is known to exploit near shore, relatively shallow marine environments in harboring what is considered to be a healthy, diverse, ubiquitous and abundant food source. If these whales are suffering from a scarcity of prey—that  is potentially very very worrying situation

Although there may be many causes for the observed malnutrition and related deaths in Gray whales —disease, pollution, sonic disturbances, etc. etc. decrease in the quantity or quality oof the prey species its exploits would be the first parameter to evaluate.  Is it possible that shallow water shrimp, amphipods, mysids isopods and other crustaceans are suffering from the leaching of persistent chemical insecticides humans have been blithely applying to their forests, fields, pastures, lawns and gardens since the 1980s in increasing amounts.  These persistent, deadly, chemical substances are carried by rainwater, which drains the farm fields, pastures and gardens passes into streams and then rivers and ultimately run into the sea.  The is strong circumstantial evidence that the runoff of these substances from farms and gardens on Long Island and Connecticut were the cause of the demise of the lobster and blue claw fishery that once existed in Long Island Sound and the bays of Connecticut and Long Island. 

Neonicitinoids (infamous now as a deadly threat to terrestrial Arthropoda (jointed legged critters like insects, bees as well as crabs, shrimp and lobsters) and the probable cause of the decline of the honey bee population).  Neonicitinoids are a class of neurotoxic pesticides which are designed to effectively target terrestrial insects— but which can kill marine Crustacea as well.   Introduced late in the last century they have become the most widely and commonly applied insecticide on earth.  Bayer Group  —the giant German pharmaceutical company and developer of the most common form of this group trade name (among others) : imidacloprid sold 20,000 tonnes (@22,00 US tons) of the active agent of the chemical in 2010,. That amount or close to it has been sold for decades and the amounts sold have been increasing over the decades.  If 22,000 US tons of Imidacloprid was about the average amount sold each year since 1980 and spread on the world’s farms, pastures, lawns and gardens we can estimate that there may be nearly 860,000 tons (22,000X 39 = 858,000) almost a million tons of potentially active chemical which has been applied and dispersed by rain and river water into the world ocean,  These substances would likely be found in higher concentrations in near shore environments- where grays feed and could conceivably affect the life cycles of Crustacea in these areas and affect the foraging success of predators such as the Gray Whale.   One possible cause of “skinny” Gray whales could be that the species food source—crustaceans— like the near extinct Long Island lobsters and our honey bees— have been poisoned off by a very insidious stealthy chemical—-claimed to be “safe as baby food”.  

It is well documented that this substance—Imidacloprid— is soluble in water, when applied on land ( In the USA it has been applied to to over 90% of the USA corn crop) only 5% of the substance is absorbed by the plant and the remainder is washed into the soil and streams where it eventually entering rivers which drain-toward the coast.  It is possible that lethal remnant concentrations of the nearly one million tons of this chemical which has been sold and presumably used since the 1980 introduction remain in the soil and in the marine environment.  Only small amounts of the chemical are required to have their lethal neurotoxic effect  on the near shore marine Arthropoda —the Crustacea—the food fro gray whales—the same effects  as it has on the terrestrial Arthropoda—the Insecta—like bees.  

What a terrible cost that would be......to kill off a few bugs—- we may be unknowingly making the whole Pacific Ocean a life desert—and eventually the rest of the planet uninhabitable.