If I Were Going...: California

Gray Whale fluke

I am so glad that we changed our whale watch to Sunday. Even though it was raining when we arrived at the Long Beach Harbor, the sun came out as we left the dock.

Our boat

Our trip was with Harbor Breeze Cruises -- reasonably priced, good naturalists and a very nice boat. There was a fairly good crowd on the boat, but graduated stadium-style seats on the bow made it easy to see without having to crowd the deck.

Winter doesn’t have as many types of whales off the California coast as the other seasons, but it is prime Gray Whale season.

And, we saw our first two before we even left the harbor.

Gray Whale

The Gray Whale, also known as the Grey Whale, Gray-Back Whale, Pacific Gray Whale or California Gray Whale, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds – about 12,000 miles of travel each year. An adult can be up to 50 ft. long with a weight of 40 tons. Its name comes from gray patches and white mottling – much of it caused by parasitic barnacles and algae -- on its dark skin.

The sole living species in the genus Eschrichtius, the Gray Whale descended from filter-feeding whales that lived more than 30 million years ago.

Gray Whales have two blowholes on tops of their heads ...

Blowhole

... that create a distinctive heart-shaped blow ...

LOVEly blow

The Gray Whale has no dorsal fin. Instead, it has a line of six to 12 raised bumps on its lower back (dorsal crenulations) leading to the flukes, or tail. These "knuckles" look like the backbone of a very skinny animal.

Backbone ridges

The tail is 10-11 ft. across, deeply notched at the center and tapered to points on the edges. Tail markings are unique and are, therefore, used to identify specific whales. As the naturalist told us, it's a much easier method that trying to tag whales with expensive transmitters and then electronically tracking them.

Fluke

Because they have no dorsal fin, Gray Whales are a bit harder to see and photograph than Orcas or Humpbacks.

Splash

Generally, they are not particularly active above the surface during non-breeding seasons. But, we actually saw three breaches. The whales did not come as far out of the water as a Humpback might and I didn’t get a single breach picture. Just a splash.

But, it was exciting to see a Gray Whale breach.

While it is hard to see whales -- and thus to predict where they will surface -- you can often spot them swimming below the surface if the water is clear. What you will see is lighter turquoise patches -- the lighter the whale, the brighter the turquoise. There are at least two here ...

Underwater view

The whales we saw (five total) are part of a population of up to 22,000 individuals that travel between northernmost Alaska and Baja California. Before the advent of whaling, there were three or four times more Gray Whales than there are now. Whaling led to Gray Whales becoming extinct in the North Atlantic in the 18th century.

Interestingly, in 2005, two conservation biologists proposed a plan to airlift 50 Gray Whales from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean; this plan has not been undertaken. I can imagine there are many reasons for not attempting such a feat.

Gray Whales feed mainly on benthic crustaceans, which they eat by turning sideways and scooping up sediments from the sea floor. They almost always turn to the right, resulting in loss of eyesight in the right eye for many older animals. This unique feeding style makes Gray Whales reliant on coastal waters. Mostly, they feed in the northern waters during the summer. But, they do eat opportunistically while migrating.

Back

Humans and Orcas are the adult Gray Whale's only predators. Recently, more and more Orcas have been showing up along the California coast, which might not be good for Gray Whales. Greater danger comes from oil drilling and ships, plus whaling by other countries.

Because of their size and need to migrate, Gray Whales are rarely held in captivity. The first captive Gray Whale was taken from Baja California in 1965 and died two months later from an infection. The second was captured in 1972 from the same area and was released a year later after becoming too large for holding facilities. The last captive Gray Whale had beached herself. She lived at SeaWorld San Diego for 14 months until she was released because she also grew too large for the facility. Reaching 19,200 pounds and 31 feet long, she was the largest creature ever to be kept in captivity.

On this trip – and I thought this was odd – we didn’t see any dolphins. There might have been one near the whales in the harbor, but it was hard to tell if we were seeing a dolphin or part of the whale. The last time I went whale-watching in California, we saw thousands of Common Dolphins plus some Rizzo’s Dolphins.

We did, however, see some California Sea Lions basking in the sun on a buoy ...

Sea Lions have long flippers they can walk on

... and some Harbor Seals hauled out on the rocks ...

Harbor Seals can't walk on land

How do you know if it is a Sea Lion or a Seal? Both (as well as Walruses) are pinnipeds, which means "fin footed" in Latin. But, there are differences.

Sea lions generally have a solid color brown to blackish coat, bark loudly, "walk" on land using their large flippers and have visible ear flaps.

Scratch

Seals often have multi-color coats, sometimes with ring-shaped patterns, sometimes with differentiation between backs and bellies. Because their small flippers are not useful for walking, they wriggle on their bellies when on land. They seldom "speak" and they have no visible ears.

Cute face

We got a kick out of both the "show-off" Sea Lion ...

Show-off

... and the Seal that kept poking his rockmate ...

"If you kids can't behave ..."

During the whale trip, I captured a few bird shots – none particularly good. These included:

Western Grebes …

Pretty red eyes

Brandt’s Cormorants (new) …

Pretty blue throat

California Gulls …

Flying high

And, Brown Pelicans …

Flying close

We were so relieved that the rain stopped because, not only did we get great views of wildlife, but, we also had a good view of the Long Beach Harbor Lighthouse ...