SEATTLE, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Federal researchers say the gray whale population along the West Coast is showing signs of recovery five years after a major mortality event.

Beginning in 2019, hundreds of the whales washed up dead on the coasts of Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Canada and Mexico.

Every year in late September, whales migrate 10,000 miles from feeding grounds in the Arctic to birth their calves along Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. NOAA researchers said the mortality event was due to ecosystem changes that affected the whales’ diet in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas off northern Alaska.

The Seattle Times reports the federal agency has estimated the total number of eastern north Pacific Gray whales to be between 17,400 and 21,300. That’s an increase of 4,000 to 5,000 whales over their low point during the die-off.