The Western North Pacific Gray Whales of Sakhalin Island

About the Book

This book presents results of western gray whale research along the northeast coast of Sakhalin Island, Russia. The northeast coast of Sakhalin Island is the site of offshore oil and gas developments and this research provides important information to help conserve and protect this critically endangered species. Because western gray whales were thought to be extinct prior to the 1980s, there has been very little scientific research on the ecology of this whale. When offshore oil and gas development began in the 1990s, industry, government, scientists, and regulators were faced with questions regarding western gray whale ecology and life history. These questions had to be answered in order to conserve this small population of gray whales. This book contains new information on the life history of western gray whales and presents a catalogue of 135 known individuals identified since 2002. The photo-identification program is conducted by researchers from the Marine Biology Institute of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBM-FEBRAS). The technique of photographing the pigmentation marks and scars of gray whales, called pattern-based matching, allows researchers to follow the movements of individual whales over time.

About the Author

Olga Yu. Tyurneva is a marine biologist and photo-identification expert with the Western Gray Whale Photo-Identification Laboratory housed at the Marine Biology Institute of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia. Dr. Yuri M. Yakovlev is a marine biologist, photographer and head of the Western Gray Whale Photo-Identification Laboratory housed at the Marine Biology Institute of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia. Christina Tombach Wright is a marine mammal photo-identification specialist based in Santa Barbara, CA, USA. Sonya K. Meier is a marine mammal scientist with LGL Limited, environmental research associates, Sidney, BC, Canada.