Fisheries Center. Seattle. Wash., as 

 pioneers in estabUshing the basis for 

 our present knowledge of the status 

 of the gray whale population cannot 

 be overstated. 



Special acknowledgement is also 

 due David W. Kenney. of Poway, 

 Calif, for his efforts in successfully 

 capturing and maintaining in good 

 health the immature gray whale 

 named Gig! II. the subject of most 

 of the research reported here. Dr. 

 Kenney should be applauded for his 

 persistence in overcoming seemingly 

 insurmountable opposition. Many of 

 Dr. Kenney 's colleagues were doubt- 

 ful that a newly born gray whale 

 could be successfully maintained alive 

 in captivity for more than a few 

 months, let alone one year. Yet, this 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



BRIAN J. ROTHSCHILD 



It is a great pleasure to welcome 

 you to the California Gray Whale 

 Workshop. The Workshop is being 

 held in a significant location and at 

 a particularly appropriate time. 



The location. La Jolla. is of course, 

 quite near the area surveyed as part 

 of the well-known California gray 

 whale census and is also a focal region 

 for other studies on the dynamics 

 and life history of the California gray 

 whale. Some of this research will be 

 presented at this Workshop where you 

 will hear about such diverse topics as 

 husbandry, respiration and metabolism, 

 cardiovascular physiology and blood 

 studies and behavior and physiology — 

 all related to the California gray 

 whale. 



In addition to being a region where 

 many contemporary studies on the 

 gray whale have been undertaken, it 

 was also in this general area of the 

 North American coast that Charles 

 M. Scammon. whaler and sometime 



Brian J. Rothschild is Director, 

 Southwest Fisheries Center, Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service, 

 NOAA, La Jolla, CA 92037. 



goal was achieved with overwhelming 

 success. From predictions of normal 

 growth. Gigi should have reached a 

 total weight of 5.946 kilograms and 

 a length of 8.30 meters by 20 March 

 1972. During her last week in captiv- 

 ity (6-13 March 1972). Gigi II was 

 weighed three or four times. Due to 

 the use of three different scales and 

 two different conditions of weigh- 

 ing (i.e., animal fasting and animal 

 fed prior to weighing), her final 

 weights ranged from 5,364 kg to 

 6,350 kg. This weight range remark- 

 ably brackets the predicted weight 

 previously mentioned. Her final over- 

 all length on 13 March 1972 was 

 8.15 meters, also significantly close 

 to the predicted length of 8.30 meters 

 based on normal growth. W.E.E. 



captain in the U.S. Revenue Marine, 

 undertook his early studies of the 

 natural history of the gray whale. His 

 studies "The Marine Mammals of the 

 North-Western Coast of North Amer- 

 ica." were published in 1874. Many 

 of Captain Scammon's observations 

 on the gray whale were made in the 

 mid-1850's when he discovered a 

 major nursery ground of the Califor- 

 nia gray whale in a Baja California 

 embayment. Laguna Ojo de Liebre. 

 now frequently called Scammon's La- 

 goon. Scammon was also involved in 

 (he early, intensive harvest of this 

 species, an activity that was terminat- 

 ed in 1946 when the International 

 Whaling Commission declared the 

 gray whale a protected species. 



The timing of this symposium is 

 also appropriate. There is now an 

 unprecedented interest in marine mam- 

 mals. TV. radio, motion pictures, 

 newspapers and magazines have all 

 contributed to a growing public aware- 

 ness and concern with these fascinat- 

 ing animals. Unfortunately, this de- 

 luge of publicity has resulted in a 

 mixture of fact and fiction. The tic- 

 tion has been further fed b\ various 



indiscriminate interpretations which 

 often accompany events of high pub- 

 licity value, inadequate data collec- 

 tion, and difficulties in interpreting 

 the sparse marine mammal data. Fur- 

 ther complications arise from conflict- 

 ing and contradictory views of special 

 interest groups that influence resource 

 decisions. A case in point is. of course, 

 the blue whale. 



Because this is also a time when 

 significant policy and conservation 

 decisions are being made on marine 

 mammals, it is particularly important 

 to concentrate on the generation of 

 factual information. The conservation 

 of our resources is essentially a deci- 

 sion-making process; this process can 

 only be effective if decision-makers 

 are supplied with appropriate facts. 

 Workshops such as this California 

 Gray Whale Workshop will do much 

 to contribute to our understanding 

 and knowledge of marine mammals 

 and assist in making better resource 

 decisions which hopefully will preserve 

 these Leviathans for the education 

 and enjoyment of future generations. 



I think Herman Melville had a 

 premonition that all of this would 

 come to pass; that status of marine 

 mammal stocks would be of world 

 concern and as a small part of this 

 concern we would be holding our 

 workshop. In fact he could be before 

 you now saying, as he did in Mohy 

 Dick: 



"Already we are boldly launched 

 upon the deep; but soon we shall 

 be lost in its unshored, harborless 

 immensities. Ere that come to pass; 

 ere the Pequod's weedy hull rolls 

 side by side with the barnacled 

 hulls of the Leviathan; at the outset 

 it is but well to attend to a matter 

 almost indispensable to a thorough 

 appreciative understanding of the 

 more special leviathanic revela- 

 tions and allusions of all sorts 

 which are to follow. 



It is some systematized exhibi- 

 tion of the whale in his broad 

 genera, that I would now fain put 

 before you. Yet is it no easy task. 

 The classification of the constitu- 

 ents of a chaos, nothing less is here 

 essayed. Listen to what the best and 

 latest authorities have laid down . . ." 



