Blue Whale Season Is Almost Upon Us!
Blue whale dorsal at surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
James S.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Hello everyone! Hope your father’s day went well. Did anyone take their dads out for a whale watch? If not, blue whale season is almost in full swing. We’re seeing blue whales on most of our whale watches and starting July 1st we’ll be changing our whale watch schedule to 12pm and 3:30pm to accommodate the longer amount of time we get to observe these majestic animals in their environment.
Blue whales come to the Southern California region in summer to feed, there are numerous areas along the west coast of the U.S. and Canada that are summer feeding grounds for this species. Blue whales will migrate as far north as Alaska during the summer and as far south as Costa Rica in the winter. Like other whales they migrate south in the winter to breed and have babies, then migrate north to the feeding grounds for the summer. California is a special area in the summer, estimates are that we can have up to 2,000 blue whales along the entire state coast during the summer. The reason this is so impressive is that population estimates for blues ranges around 20,000 worldwide.
Here are the aquarium we have participated in a data collection survey for the last 7 years to not only collecting sighting information but to also identify blue whales. Our program has been able to ID about 300 blue whales, and every year we find some “new” whales that we have never spotted from our whale watch boats. So the catalog is continuously growing. If you would like to learn more about our identified whales check out our whale project to look at sightings of a few species we’ve seen over numerous years.
If you haven’t been able to get down to Long Beach yet, summer is here and so are the blue whales, sounds like it’s time to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific and get on to a boat from Harbor Breeze Cruises. Purchase your combo ticket here and visit over 12,000 animals inside the building and get a chance to see the largest animal on the planet, the blue whale, while they are on migration here. Have some summer fun and I’ll see you on the water.
Blue whale dorsal at surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose dolphins porpoising Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose dolphin jumping in the air Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue fluke with water cascading off the back Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale fluke Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Patches, leucistic bottlenose dolphin Credit: Josh Meza-Fidalgo, Harbor Breeze Cruises
Patches, leucistic bottlenose dolphin Credit: Josh Meza-Fidalgo, Harbor Breeze Cruises
Blue whale fluke Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose dolphin dorsal fins Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Fin whale dorsal fin Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale dorsal at surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale fluke and tail stock Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose dolphin at the surface of the water Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Patches, leucistic bottlenose dolphin Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Fin whale blow Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Fin whale with visible white lower jaw Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Common dolphin porpoising Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale right side and dorsal fin Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale dorsal fin Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Common dolphin pod Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale with San Pedro in the background Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Two fin whales Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale left dorsal side Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue heron on the breakwall Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Fin whale dorsal fin with old injury Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Tern in flight Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale fluke and tail stock from the side Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale fluke Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific