Whale Watching

We were able to participate recently in one of the perks of living along the Pacific Ocean: whale watching. We got up early Saturday morning and traveled down to the San Diego harbor to board a boat which would carry us on a 3-hour tour out in to ocean. (No, the first mate was not named Gilligan!) We had been waiting for the right part of the season to go when we were pretty sure there would be whales to see.

Warning - Science Content
California gray whales migrate from the cold Alaskan waters south along the western coast of the US to lagoons in Mexico where they give birth to their young. The whales know they need to travel to warmer waters before their babies are born. There are two reasons for this. First, newborn babies have to learn to swim properly and the waters off the coast of Mexico have more salt and are, therefore, more dense, which helps the newborns float in the water more easily while learning. Second, the babies are not born with a good layer of blubber which is needed for them to survive in the very cold Alaskan water. They spend time in the warmer waters consuming 50 gallons a day of their mother's milk, building up blubber and learning to swim to make the journey back to Alaska. The reason they travel to Alaska is because the food is more plentiful and nutrient-rich there. The whales spend the short summer months filtering enough food from the ocean floor to provide sufficient energy to make the 6-month journey back to the warm water to mate or give birth.

We boarded our boat and headed out to sea. On the way out through the San Diego harbor, we saw many sea lions resting in the sun. Less than a mile out of the harbor, we came upon a really spectacular site. Someone spotted a dolphin just ahead of us and then a few more. The naturalist on board pointed out that the dolphins had created a 'fish-ball' and were feeding. A fish-ball is created when a group of dolphins gather together a large number of smaller fish into a cluster. They then can dart through and grab fish to eat. We were able to see several dolphins swimming around in circles and jumping out of the water. After we passed them, two or three dolphins decided to swim along with us right off the bow of the ship. They seemed to be having a lot of fun racing along and jumping out of the water.

A couple of miles further out, someone spotted the spray from a surfacing gray whale. The boat maneuvered around so that we could see the whale surface a couple of times to take a breath and then dive back down showing us his tail as it went. For the next hour and a half, or so, we followed along with this whale watching him surface, take 2 breaths, and then dive again every 3 and 1/2 minutes. He was so consistent with this timing that I could look at my watch and get my camera ready within about 15 seconds of seeing him surface. It was very cool to see. I tried to get some good photos of him but the pictures just don't do him justice. The most you could every really see of him was his side and his tail just before his next dive.

We all had a great time and had only slight problems with motion sickness. There are some other boat trips available which we are interested in. One is a six hour nature trip to a nearby island...Becky has already reminded me we have our 20th wedding anniversary this summer.

Allen