Photo: Jesús Tovar Sosa/Infobae
In 2025 there was a veritable slaughter among gray whales along Mexico's Pacific coast. With 91 specimens found lifeless by mid-May, the figure surpassed the previous record of 2020 (88 deaths) and ignited a new alarm among scientists. The phenomenon, already referred to in 2019 as an "unusual mortality event," seems far from over.
Raising the alarm is Dr. Jorge Urban Ramírez, head of PRIMMA (Marine Mammal Research Program) at the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, who points the finger at a food crisis linked to climate change. Whales, in fact, are literally starving to death.
The problem arises in the Arctic feeding grounds to the north, where global warming is melting sea ice and disrupting a fragile but essential food chain. Algae growing under the ice feed the crustaceans and other organisms on which the whales feed. Without ice, no algae, no food. The result? Increasingly thin, weak and vulnerable cetaceans.
This debilitating condition makes whales more susceptible to disease, collisions with boats and even attacks by killer whales. In parallel, the harsher winter caused by the La Niña phenomenon has lengthened the migratory route, which can exceed 10,000 km, further increasing energy expenditure.
The crisis does not stop at mortality: births are also in free fall. Only 69 cubs were counted in 2025, the lowest number ever recorded. The females, now exhausted and malnourished, often lack the strength to carry their pregnancies to term.
Although they are not currently classified as an endangered species, gray whales are experiencing alarming population declines. According to PRIMMA, from an estimated more than 24,000 in 2016 to about 14,000 in 2022-a 30 percent decrease in just a few years.
The areas where the bodies are found also signal a change in migration routes. While in the past most beachings took place in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, cases are now also being recorded in the south, in locations such as Bahía Magdalena, San Felipe, Guaymas, Mazatlán, Loreto, and La Paz. A sign that the whales are changing course in desperate search for food.
Jorge Urban Ramírez proposes that the gray whale be placed in the "endangered" category of Semarnat Rule 059 (the Mexican equivalent of our Ministry of the Environment), thus increasing the level of protection.
This crisis is yet another concrete demonstration of the devastating impact of climate change on marine ecosystems. Without a reversal, such events may no longer be exceptions, but the new rule. And the ones who will pay the price, once again, will be the species that cannot defend themselves.
https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2025/05/21/suman-91-ballenas-grises-muertas-en-el-pacifico-mexicano-alcanzan-cifra-record-en-lo-que-va-de-2025/
