Gray Whale Migration Update: February 8, 2006

Today's Report Includes:

• Welcome to the Spring Gray Whale Migration Season!
• Who's Kissing a Baby Whale?
• NEW! Your Official Gray Whale Migration Journals
• Latest Migration Data
• Challenge Question #1: Southbound Babies
• Field Notes from the Nursery Lagoons
• Field Notes from ACS/LA
• Field Notes from ACS/Channel Islands

Welcome to the Spring Gray Whale Migration Season!
As you sit in your cozy classrooms today, where are the California gray whales? Are you surprised to learn that many are still plowing south on their 5,000 to 6,000-mile swim from Alaska to Mexico? But most gray whales are in the warm Mexican lagoons right now. (Click on the map dots to read more about each lagoon.) They started arriving in December to mate, give birth, and nurture their newborns. So far, only a few adult and subadult whales have started the northward migration back to the Arctic. As the whales move northward up the coast, we'll be hearing first sightings and news from a network of observers along the way. Are you ready for the adventure? You are if you've seen our print-and-fold booklet:

• Gray Whales: The Monumental Migration [.pdf file]
  ["slide show" version on the Web]

The booklet promises you the video clip coming next, so take a look—and thanks for joining us in a new season of the gray whales' Journey North!

Kissing A Baby Whale Watch It Now Tips

Keep a Journal This journal is designed to be used while the whales are in the nursery lagoons of Mexico and all along the migration trail back to the Arctic. Print your copy!

NOTE: Students can write their own headlines, summaries, and answers to the Challenge Questions—-even though it’s still too soon in the season for them to fill in the top part of the journal page. They might like to include in their summary the highest per day count at both the Los Angeles and Channel Islands census stations.

Los Angeles Data	Gray Whale Migration Off the California Coast Whales passing per day February1-6, 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

Analyze the Data
Describe today's data in your migration journals or class/group discussion. Note your predictions and explain your reasoning:

• What do the data show about whale traffic during the first week of February?
• How would you complete this sentence? "The southbound migration is ______ compared to the northbound migration."
• Notice that the scientists record "zeros" on days whales were not seen. (See data charts for Los Angeles and Channel Islands.) Why is it valuable to record zeros? What does a zero tell you?

New data in each report will provide an opportunity to revisit and revise predictions. Many seasons of previous data exist for the ACS-Los Angeles study, but the ACS-Channel Islands study (called “Gray Whales Count”) is in only its second year. That means many surprises and questions for the scientists and YOU! Read on for an example.

Click to enlarge. You'll see a mom and baby swimming south! Photo Tony Nichols

Between Dec. 1 and 6 February, 37 southbound calves had been counted by the ACS-Los Angeles observers. How does being born in the cold, open ocean during their mother's migration affect the calves? So far, scientists can only wonder. After all, it's tough to study what you can't see and keep track of.

“No one knows if the calves born before the lagoon make it back up to Alaska," said Michael H. Smith. "Everyone wants to know. We just have to figure a way to find out and get folks willing to do it.” Before you answer our first Challenge Question, read what two scientists think about southbound babies, and see more in Mike's field notes from ACS/LA, below:

• Southbound Babies: Two Scientists Speak

  Challenge Question #1:
  “What do you think are the best conditions for a baby whale's birth and survival in its first months of life? Make a list based on the booklet, your own ideas, and the scientists' comments in Southbound Babies. Explain your thinking.”

• To respond to this Challenge Question, please follow these instructions.
  

Keith Jones saw several mothers-to-be as they rested in Laguna Ojo de Liebre the week before Christmas. He now wonders: "Will this be the third year in a row where a record number of babies are born? The last two seasons have each seen over 750 baby whales counted in Laguna Ojo de Liebre, when the norm here is 200 to 400 babies." Go to the map at the top and click to see more on Laguna Ojo de Liebre. Photo: People on one of Keith's whale watch boats lean over to see a huge gray whale in Laguna Ojo de Liebre.

Mike says it's strange how sound "seems to travel farther in the fog and at night, as you can't see the whales but you can hear them breathe. One of the best things I have ever experienced is camping on the beach in one of the lagoons in Baja and falling asleep with only the sound of whales breathing. It sometimes was so loud that I thought the whales were in my tent!"   Photo: Mike and his dog watch for whales.

Find the census station at Coal Point! (Click to enlarge satellite image.)	They didn't see any gray whales, but they DID see this one day: what is it? Photos Michael H. Smith
Michael H. Smith is the census director for Gray Whales Count at ACS/Channel Islands. He shares great details daily from the census. For example, on January 28: "The big surprise was a gray whale cow/calf pair about 3:30 PM. The calf was probably born up the coast, above Point Arguello. Most of the mature whales migrate south to Mexico through the Channel Islands. Some calves are born in the Islands and continue as they can with mom onto Mexico. But this mom probably decided to hug the coast on her way south with her calf and thereby cruised by just offshore of Coal Oil Point this afternoon. We wish them well, and hope to see them on their return north." So do we! Stay tuned!

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