Journey North Gray Whale Spring 2006

Gray Whale Migration Off the California Coast
Latest Migration Data and Graphs

Make your own graphs using the data at the links below, or print and anayze our graphs. For background, see lessoon: Tracking Gray Whale Migration from California Observation Posts.)

Los Angeles Data	Whales passing per day February 1 - March 6, 2006	Channel Islands Data

Northbound and Southbound Los Angeles	Northbound Los Angeles	Northbound Channel Islands
Data Courtesy of the American Cetacean Society of Los Angeles and Channel Islands

Journaling Questions

Here come the babies! The first mother/calf pairs have been seen at both the Los Angeles and Channel Islands Observation posts. These "firsts" occurred within days of one another. Are these babies and their moms earlier or later than the first pair sighted last year? (Check the spring 2005 graphs for Los Angeles and Channel Islands and find out.)

A big jump in whale numbers: A sudden surge in sightings occurred in the final days of February and first days of March. Could whales sighted from Los Angeles on Feb. 28th have been the same whales seen in the Channel Islands the very next day? (Helpful facts: Gray Whales swim approximately 3-5 mph and they migrate 24 hours a day/7 days a week. The distance between the two observation posts is 125 miles by car, but of course the whales don't travel by freeway. Using your atlas, lay a string along the coastline and compare it to the map's scale of miles to estimate water distance.) Many factors influence the time it takes a whale to make the swim. List some in your journal.

The journey north outpaces the journey south: When do you declare the "turnaround" date to have occurred this spring? How does this spring's date compare to previous years? The turnaround date for the 2004 migration was February 19, 2004. What is the turnaround date in 2005? (See Spring 2005 graph.)