Whales breathe air and when their warmed lung air hits the cooler air above the ocean, a fine mist/vapor is created. So their “blow” or “spout” is not water, though some droplets may be present on the top of the closed blowhole and get sprayed as well. Here’s a great photo by Carla Mitroff, an Orange County whalewatcher and nature photographer, showing the characteristic “heart-shaped” blow of a gray whale as seen on a calm day and viewed from behind the whale.
Good southern California weather recently makes it possible to even watch our coastal migrating gray whales from the beach or high cliffs. We are ready to meet up with them in Laguna San Ignacio!
GRAY WHALE CENSUS UPDATE, Pt. Vicente: 7 January 2015. Our biggest day this season: 44 southbound, including a cow/calf pair! A pod of TEN GRAY WHALES came within a half mile of shore, followed by a pod of TWELVE whales that showed up while we were watching the ten whales, and came in even closer to shore! The second sighting moved slowly, taking almost two hours to pass by us. We heard blows on both sightings, and saw a bubble blast during one sighting and rolling in the other. Our cow/calf pair came by early in the morning, and passed fairly close to shore. COMMON DOLPHIN swam all around one whale. A pod of five whales were pretty close together when we first found them; then they started to split apart, making us constantly struggle to verify that we did not double-count our whales. One pod of whales produced two BREACHES – five miles away from us. Whales in sixteen of eighteen sightings fluked. A few were frequent flukers; one whale was missing part of its left fluke. At least three HUMPBACK WHALES milled in our viewing area. We also spotted COMMON DOLPHIN, BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN, and PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN. -Alisa
Southbound grays —–44
Northbound grays——- 0
Total grays ————- 44
Cow/calves South——–1
Total grays (since 1 Dec): *587 southbound, 2 northbound
Our colleagues in Laguna San Ignacio report seeing 18-20 adult gray whales in the last few days. In addition, they’ve seen about 4-5 of those whales with a calf! There has also been some early friendly behavior as well. We can’t wait to bring our lucky passengers down south!
And signed copies will be for sale aboard Searcher….E. robustus: The Biology and Human History of Gray Whales by Searcher friend and colleague, Dr James Sumich.
GRAY WHALE CENSUS UPDATE, Pt. Vicente: 23 Dec.2014: TWENTY GRAYS!, including another calf! Our GRAY WHALE COW/CALF PAIR came into the kelp down below us, so we got great looks at them. The mom fluked a few times. Our whales came in pulses again: twice we were juggling three sightings, and once when we were tracking two sightings. We found one GRAY WHALE sighting when one whale BREACHED. A pod of four whales milled and rolled right down in front of us late in the day; the setting sun turned their white blows pink. It took a while to confirm that there were actually four GRAY WHALES in this group. We also spotted COMMON DOLPHIN, BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN, and PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN. -Alisa
Southbound grays — 20
Northbound grays—— 0
Total grays ———– 20
Cow/calves South —- 1 (4 newborns already!)
Total grays (since 1 Dec): 188* (record number of grays for this point in 31 seasons)
Here’s the daily report from the LA-based census for migrating gray whales:
As of 15 DEC 2014
Southbound Today ————— 14
Northbound Today —————- 0
Total Whales Today ————- 14
Southbound Calves Today ——— 0
Northbound Calves Today ——— 0
Season to Date (since 1 Dec 2014)
Southbound ——————— 89
Northbound ———————- 0
Total ————————– 89
Calves South ——————– 0
Calves North ——————– 0
Message from the observers: FOURTEEN GRAY WHALES! All GRAYS were singles, except for one trio. All came within a mile of shore; eight sightings came within a half mile of shore. We were tracking up to four sightings at one time. Nine GRAY WHALES came along the coast and were spotted just above the kelp line, near Rocky Point. The trio came in from offshore, then milled for a short time by the R10 buoy before coming down to “Whale Rock”. Gray whales fluked on all but one sighting. We tracked two FIN WHALES that came within a mile of shore, and we may have seen a MINKE WHALE. We also spotted COMMON DOLPHIN and PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN.
We received the report we always love to hear–the first gray whale arrived on December 7!
GRAY WHALE CENSUS UPDATE, Pt. Vicente: 8 Dec. 2014. SIX MORE GRAY WHALES: all large adults! First came a trio of frequently fluking GRAY WHALES. One split from the group, and another whale turned around and back-tracked to it; then they all rejoined and came so close to shore that we could hear their blows. One of them lifted its head high on one surfacing. The next two GRAY WHALES came by about fifteen minutes apart; one passed about a mile offshore, and the other came within a half mile offshore. Whales in three of our four GRAY WHALE sightings fluked up. We tracked a pair of FIN WHALES that passed us about four miles offshore, until they disappeared into our sun line.We also spotted COMMON DOLPHIN and BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN. Our day ended with a series of three great green flashes, with the last one turning blue as the sun set behind Santa Barbara Island. -Alisa
Southbound grays – 6
Northbound grays — 0
Total grays ———– 6
As reported by ACS-LA: “Very sad news. The deceased orca in Georgia Strait found earlier today is 18-year old J32, Rhapsody, according to photos sent by Canada’s Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans and identified by Ken Balcomb at the Center for Whale Research. J32 was thought by many to be in the late stages of pregnancy last summer. A necropsy Saturday will reveal if she was indeed pregnant and hopefully the cause of death. A recent generous grant by the Milgard Foundation will allow Ken Balcomb to attend and assist in the necropsy.
J32’s mother was J20, who died in 1998 when Rhapsody was only 2 years old. She was raised by her aunt, J22 Oreo. She is survived by J22 and her cousins J34 Doublestuf and J38 Cookie, leaving only three survivors of the former J10 matriline, and only 77 members of the Southern Resident Community.
We cannot express how tragic this loss is for this struggling, precariously small, family of resident orcas of the Salish Sea.”
The census watch began on December 1 and volunteers are staffing the LA-based station. Below is their report for December 3! (Census Director Alisa Schulman-Janiger. )
GRAY WHALE CENSUS UPDATE, Pt. Vicente.3 Dec 2014. SIX grays: a big count for early in our season, despite intermittent rain throughout the day that made spotting and tracking cetaceans a bit difficult. Right after we spotted our first gray whale at 6:40 am, we found a pair of grays just outside of our shoreline kelp bed; they both fluked, and left our viewing field within ten minutes. The next pair of gray whales was a little further off shore; both fluked.Our sixth gray whale passed us three miles offshore; we did not find it until it was almost to Whale Rock (past transect). We also spotted bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin, and Pacific white-sided dolphin.
Southbound grays – 6
Northbound grays — 0
Total grays ———— 6
