California Grays Among the Ice

This 1874 illustration of California gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) shows a group of individuals at the edge of their modern day range in the North Pacific Ocean, blocked from traveling further east into Arctic waters by thick ice barriers. With the recent opening of the Northwest Passage in the Arctic due to melting sea ice barriers, Seabird McKeon, research biologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian Marine Station, and a team of scientists have noted increasing observations of Atlantic and Pacific species exchanging between the two ocean basins and are calling for the scientific community and citizen scientists to work together to systematically monitor potential migration through the newly opened waterway to track movement of these species and predict potential effects of newly established ranges.