The longer we observe the natural world, the more we learn about its rhythms and changing patterns. The eastern Pacific is an excellent example. A March 2003 Associated Press report in an Oregon newspaper noted that migrating gray whales now show encouraging signs of recovery, compared to the recent three year period from 1998 through 2001 in which their population dropped from around 26,600 to 17,400. Last year and this spring, scientists noted that gray whales are no longer emaciated, and they now appear to be strongly migrating north for the summer season, where they will forage on the seabed in the Arctic. The alarming high instance of strandings by gray whales now also appears abated, and scientists feel that they may have reached a more comfortable level within their ecosystem.

During the alarming die-off, it had been proposed that the population high of over 26,000 animals was simply too much for their habitat, and that, compounded by a cyclical warming of the Arctic waters where they forage, was thought to have been the reason for their high mortality rate. Emaciated whales appeared to have had insufficient food for the migration, and were dying by the hundreds. They had no fat reserves for the trip.

A number of issues should be considered when any discussion of the future of Makah or others' harvest of gray whales is resumed; the present ecosystem may or may not remain favorable to the present, or an increased, level of grays. Periodic ocean warming and cooling, levels of human disturbance of the Arctic seabed by trawling, and human predation should all be taken into consideration when harvest plans for grays are proposed. The present political climate, which precludes additional harvest, may not be the best management option for these animals. In fact, they may thrive best when their numbers are kept at or near the present level. Calf production now seems to be much more successful in the past year or so, and this and calf mortality should be monitored and taken into account, for the most advantageous future for both gray whales and for those who wish to make sustainable use of them. People on the northwest coast of North America who wish to resume traditional use of these animals would do them no harm, and might just be necessary in keeping them at optimal levels, without the "natural" and catastrophic up and down cycles that have been recently observed.