coast of Kamchatka. Thirty -one whales 

 (19 males, 12 females) taken from 

 July 27 to August 22, 1925, with Na- 

 thalia Bay as a base, ranged from 

 25 to 36 feet in length. This was a 

 smaller and younger group of whales 

 than was taken by the same vessel 

 from Bahfa Magdalena, Mexico. Risting 

 believed they had migrated from Mexi- 

 can, rather than Korean, breeding 

 grounds. Sleptsov (1955) stated that 

 the populations "probably nnixed before 

 each herd was reduced to very low 

 figures." 



Distribution and migration of the 

 California population will be discussed 

 in detail in the next chapter. 



Gray whales of the Korean popula- 

 tion spend the summer in Okhotsk Sea. 

 The same whales were reported by 

 Scammon (1874), Andrews (1914), and 

 Mizue (1951) to spend the winter in 

 the waters of South Korea, and per- 

 haps the Yellow Sea. These whales 

 apparently calve in the channels, in- 



lets, and bays along the rocky coast 

 of South Korea. 



Fraser (1937) reported that gray 

 whales were taken with nets by the 

 Japanese as far back as the 17th 

 century, but the harvest was unim- 

 portant. After 1903, gray whales were 

 captured in unrestricted numbers by 

 modern whaling equipment and by 1938 

 the population was so low that all 

 further whaling ceased because it was 

 unprofitable. There are no estimates 

 of the number remaining when whaling 

 stopped. 



Subfossil remains of gray whales of 

 the Atlantic population have been un- 

 earthed from Recent deposits at three 

 localities in Europe: (1) Grisd, Swe- 

 den; (2) Cornwall and Devon, England; 

 and (3) Zuider Zee, Holland (van Deinse 

 and Junge 1937). The gray whale ap- 

 parently survived into historical times 

 off the coast of New England, where 

 it was captured by early 18th century 

 whalers under the name "scrag" whale 

 (Dudley, 1725). 



DISTRIBUTION AND MIGRATION OF 

 THE CALIFORNIA POPULATION 



SUMMER RANGE 



Most California gray whales appar- 

 ently spend the summer in the Arctic -- 

 in the Bering and Chukchi seas. No 

 gray whales have ever been followed 

 from one ground to the other, nor 

 marked in one area and recovered in 

 the other. However, the times of dis- 

 appearance and reappearance of gray 

 whales in the winter grounds off Baja 

 California and in the summer Arctic 

 grounds, along with the direction of 

 movement, lead to the assumption that 

 these whales are of the same herd. 

 A few have recently been found in 

 summer on the coast of northern Cali- 

 fornia and southern Oregon. 



cording to Zenkovich ( 1 934) and Sleptsov 

 (1955), gray whales arrive in north- 

 western Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea 

 in June and stay through September, 

 Ichihara (1958) reported a single gray 

 whale in Unimak Pass on May 29, 

 1957, and another seen from a whale 

 catcher on July 28, west of St. Law- 

 rence Island. Also, on August 2, be- 

 tween 63034'N., 172°48'W. and 63° 

 54'N,, 170°50'W. (west of St. Lawrence 

 Island) three groups consisting of 3, 

 20, and about 150 gray whales, 36 to 

 41 feet in length, were seen and photo- 

 graphed by Keiji Nasu of the Whales 

 Research Institute. The larger ag- 

 gregations were divided into smaller 

 groups of one to three whales. 



Bering-Chukchi Area 



No studies of gray whales were con- 

 ducted in the Bering -Chukchi area 

 during the present investigations. Ac- 



California -Oregon Area 



A whaling company operating out of 

 Humboldt Bay, California, in the 1940's, 

 found a small herd of gray whales 



