Grey Whales in Pacific Northwest

Gray whales beat commercial whaling, only to run into a warmer Arctic that is quietly starving them.

Gray whales were one of the great marine mammal recovery stories. Commercial whaling nearly wrecked them, protections helped bring them back, and by 2016, the eastern North Pacific population was estimated at about 27,000 animals.

Now they are in trouble again.

In the past seven years, as climate change increasingly deprives them of nutritious prey, many gray whales haven't been able to get fat enough to endure their long trek or to participate in the energy-sapping business of breeding, gestating, giving birth and nursing calves.…