The
annual Pacific gray whale migration has begun in Southern California and whale
watchers are already excited about the number of sightings near the South Bay
this week.
About
100 Cabrillo Marine Aquarium volunteer naturalists climbed aboard the Redondo
Beach Voyager Wednesday morning at the unofficial start of the local
whale-watching season. It was too windy for the boat to venture out to areas
where the gray whales might be spotted, but there are already indications that
lots of the 50-foot-long mammals will be seen through the end of the season in
May.
"Last
season, our gray whales migrated closer to shore and our counts were quite
high," said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, director of the annual gray whale
census count at Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes.
"The migration started earlier than usual. This year, the same thing may
be happening."
The
census, sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Cetacean Society,
has been taking place since 1979. Last season, volunteer census takers posted
at the interpretive center counted a record 672 southbound and 1,133 northbound
gray whales from December to May.
Each
winter, the whales swim south in one of the longest known mammalian migrations.
On the 14,000-mile round-trip, they go without food as they seek out warm
lagoons in Baja, Mexico, to give birth and mate. They must give birth in warm
water because their babies are not born with enough blubber to insulate them
against the cold Alaskan seas.
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