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Report Your Sightings! |
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Hopeful whale watchers are flocking to see the whales. The fun is in the lagoons, where moms and babies frolic. That's where you get up-close learning; what is this photo? Off the California coast, people watching at Los Angeles for what's called the "turnaround" date have news. Gray Whales Count and Monterey Bay have spotted their first northbound whales. Here they come!
This Week's Report Includes:
- Whale Watching: News From Observation Posts
- Little Whales: Learning from Observations
- Journal: Why Do They Go?
- Tracking the Migration: Using Daily Data
Photo: Patrycja
Kaczynska
What are those slits on this whale's head?
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Here's
the news!
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Whales are on the move and so are hopeful whale watchers, flocking to the Mexican lagoons and the Pacific Coast to see the whales. At San Diego, Staci reports still seeing a lot of whales heading South. Is migration late? Meanwhile, Alisa from Los Angeles reports, "We have spotted 32 of our 38 northbound gray whales since February 2." But they on track to a record low for southbound whales. And in the lagoons, counts are down from previous years. This is a year to watch. Observations include: What
are the latest counts at Laguna San Ignacio (#2) and
Laguna Ojo de Liebre (#3)?
What exciting change took place in numbers at the
Los
Angeles post (#6) since
our last report? What rare sight did they see? What made Feb.
11 and 12 big days for observers at Gray Whales Count (#7)?
Which two California posts (#5, #9) saw
their first northbounders? Click on the globe for answers and more! |
Little whales make big news. What do they do for fun? Who are their playmates? Do they ever get lost? Clues come from this week's news.
Counter Point (#7): "Our second northbound gray whale of the 2010 Count may have been the smallest solo whale we have seen in all our surveys. The little guy spent a lot of time wandering in the kelp forest. Perhaps this was the little whale that left Santa Barbara." (See video clip). -Michael H. Smith
Los Angeles (#6): Observers watched a juvenile gray whale for nearly an hour. "It did a very high SPYHOP — a rare sight during migration — as it arrived in front of us. As it fluked, we realized that some bottlenose dolphins were interacting with it. The whale rolled over and swam on its back as the dolphins jumped around it." -Alisa Schulman-Janiger
What other discoveries can you make? See Holy Cow! What a Calf. What name would you give to each calf you read about in today's report?
Photo: Patrycja
Kaczynska
Jugadora! (What's
that?)
Photo: Michael H. Smith
Calf in kelp
"About 10:50 a.m. we saw a blow to the east not far offshore. It was a juvenile, maybe making its first or second solo journey north. We tracked it for about 25 minutes as it stayed close to shore and swam though the array of oil-barge buoys. But we can't really say the migration has begun. Juveniles are wild cards that have a mindlessness all their own. As if to prove the point, we saw another juvenile heading south later in the day. How far south the whale goes, only the whale knows. There is not much for it to do in Mexico, so when it gets hungry, which it probably is right now, it will turn around and head north." -Michael Smith
- Why do the juveniles make such a long migration when they aren't old enough to mate or give birth until about eight years of age?
Write your thoughts in your Gray Whale Journal. Then compare with what experts think in Why Head South?
"This looks like our migration turn-around week," reports Alisa,Director of the ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project. "Typically in mid-February we see gray whales going in both directions, with the primary direction of travel switching from southbound to northbound."
- From the data, can you figure out when the turnaround took place?
- Curious about other turnarounds? Compare and find the average date for six most recent years.
- Graphing gray whale data through the whole season? Add the latest data.
- Overview: Tracking Gray Whale Migration from California Observation Posts
- Photo Study: What are those slits on this whale's head?
- Video clip: Watch a Gray Whale Blow
- Hear from the Experts: Why Head South?
- Lesson: Holy Cow, What a Calf!
- Math/Graphs: Compare PreviousTurnaround Dates
- Journal Cover & Pages: Gray Whale Migration Journal
- Using Data: Questions About This Week's Data
Baby
Face! What do you see?
Photo:
The Orca Network
The Next Gray Whale Migration Update Will Be Posted on March 3, 2010.
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