Rare Sighting! Twin Gray Whales

On Monday, June 1, while on a gray whale watch in California, viewers saw a rare sight, a mother gray whale with two calves at her side.

Either the mother gave a very rare birth to twins or one of the calves lost its mother and was adopted by this mother. 

They were swimming north to return to their feeding grounds near Alaska. Gray whales swim about 6,000 miles from their wintertime stay in the lagoons of Baja California to Alaska.

First Drone Video of Newborn Gray Whale

Gray Whale Calf in San Ignacio Lagoon.  

Welcome new born gray whale!  Here is a video showing a newly born gray whale making its way south to Mexico waters with its mother.  This is spectacular!

Gray Whale Migration: South & North

Baby Gray Whale Near Boat in San Ignacio

     It is late February and thousands of gray whales have found their way to the warm waters of Baja California.  New baby whales are counted everyday.
     Latecomers are still spotted southbound. Last Thursday we saw a pod of about 4 whales swimming south from our Central California lookout.  And then the next day we saw at least 2 whale swimming back north.  They were probably juvenile gray whales.  
      The Pacific west coast is like a whale highway right now.  Blue whales are visiting Monterey Bay, along with a few Humpback whales.  Off the coast of Los Angeles, a whale watch boat found a pod of Sperm whales!  That was a surprise.  


     

Making Fluke Prints

Photo of gray whale migrating south to Baja California. Photo take Jan. 31.

Thank you Blue Ocean Whale Watch for this recent photo.

If people leave footprints, then what do whales make?  They don't have big feet, but they do have big flukes (their rear tail).  When that fluke hits the water it leaves a fluke print.  The white arrow show the fluke print this whale left behind.

Gray whale fluke.  www.examiner.com

The Gray Whale Winter Migration Continues

A gray whale in San Ignacio Lagoon.  C. Coimbra photo

Strung like gray beads along the west coast of the Pacific Ocean are thousands of gray whales swimming to the warm waters of Mexico.

Yesterday a gray whale swam thru the kelp in the waters near Big Sur, California, while over 1000 miles away, in San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California, whale watchers  just reported: 46 gray whales in the Baja California lagoon and that 15 were adult females with their newborn calves (baby gray whales)! 

There are several places in Mexico where migrating gray whales will spend their winter.  Besides San Ignacio Lagoon, there is Scammon's Lagoon--also knowns as Laguna Ojo de Liebre,and  Magdalena Bay.

Gray Whale Migration Update

San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California Sur

Everyday we watch gray whales swim south in the Pacific Ocean. They swim in groups, or pods--sometimes just two whales, sometimes five or more whales--all heading south for Mexico's warm water lagoons.  And lookouts in Mexico report that some whales have already arrived at San Ignacio Lagoon--or Laguna San Ignacio, as said in Spanish.

What a special place! San Ignacio Lagoon is so special that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the last undeveloped gray whale birthing lagoon on the planet.

We hope to share with you the first gray whale birth of the season.  But that's not always easy.  Many of the pregnant whales swim to the very inner tip of this lagoon to give birth to their calves.  That means that there are not that many people to witness the first birth.

But what a birth it will be.  The newborn calf will measure almost 15 feet long--about the size of a pickup truck.  It is a curious and playful rascal.  

Here's a photo of a curious young calf that came up to our boat in San Ignacio Lagoon when we visited a few years ago.

 

Curious Gray Whale Calf. C. Coimbra Photo

Gray Whales Begin A Long Migration

Thousands of gray whales are heading south for winter. 

  In Fall, groups--or pods--of gray whales leave the cold seas of Alaska where they feed all summer long to spend their winters in the warm and clear waters of Mexico. This is called a migration.  It is one of the longest migration routes in nature.  

Two weeks ago we saw over 20 gray whales swim past us along the Central Coast of California.  A gray whale swims about 6 miles per hour.

Of all the whales in the ocean, gray whales are the oldest baleen whales in the world. (Baleen means these whales do not have sharp teeth like killer whales.)

By the end of December most of the gray whales will reach the Mexican waters of Baja California. 

It's not as easy to safely swimming this 5,000 mile route as it was before us humans came upon the scene.  Over 100 years ago humans hunted gray whales almost to the point where there were only a few left.  But gray whales are protected from big time hunting.  This helped gray whales rebuild their population.

Neptune 911 For Kids will update the gray whale migration later in December.