Researchers studying gray whales in the Pacific Northwest are worried about an unmistakable trend among the creatures—they're shrinking, and at a pretty fast rate, according to a study published in Global Change Biology.
- Smaller: Whales in this group born after 2000 are about 5 feet, 5 inches shorter than whales born before that date, say researchers in a news release. With a baseline length of about 40 feet, that amounts to a loss of about 13% of their length, or roughly 3 inches per year, reports Scientific American.
- Human comparison: Researchers say that if the same were applied to a female human, she would have shrunk from 5-foot-4 to 4-foot-8.