Gray Whales Galore!

James S.

Friday, February 22, 2019

The whale watches have been seeing quite a few gray whales and we finally found some winter fin whales. Normally they should be hanging out in the area in high numbers but it’s been a while since we last saw this large and beautiful whale.

One of the interesting things we have observed again this year is that there are a lot of gray whales hanging out in the harbor feeding. According to most of the gray whale literature, this is a bit out of the ordinary for a pit stop mid-migration. Migrating whales should be feeding for most of their time in the summer feeding grounds before the head south, where they will fast for most of the journey. For reasons we haven’t been able to answer yet, some gray whales are stopping and feeding along our coastline in the winter season. This oddity even caught the eye of one of our interns again this spring, who is going to continue investigating this phenomenon.

We’ve only seen a few northbound gray whales so far so predominantly we’re still in the southbound season. Pretty soon we’ll start seeing some regular northbound swimmers. We’ll also be starting up our Urban Ocean cruises again for the summer, keep your eye out for the schedule! If you haven’t seen any grays yet come on down to Long Beach and get your combo ticket to the Aquarium of the Pacific and Harbor Breeze Cruises. Visit the Aquarium and its 12,000 animals on display and then get on a whale watch to see some of our local marine life in their native habitat.