The annual migration of the grey whale takes place between December and April. Point Dume headlands best place to view migrations.
By Greg Sidor/Special to The Malibu Times
And you thought your commute was long.
Imagine making an annual pilgrimage from the Arctic to Baja California, a trip that covers 10,000 to 14,000 miles roundtrip. Now imagine being pregnant for some of that time, carrying a baby that will have a birth weight of roughly 1,200-1,600 pounds. For the gray whale, it’s a way of life.
From December to late April, coastal visitors have the chance to see these gentle giants up close, either from the beach or on a variety of boat cruises in Southern California. There are approximately 18,000 gray whales in the Pacific Ocean, and nearly all make the trip down to Baja to mate, said Alisa Shulman-Janiger, project director for the Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project at the American Cetacean Society.
For most of the year, the gray whales feed in the Chukchi and Bering Seas, far from the warm sun and surf of California, Shulman-Janiger said. When it comes time to mate, however, they head down the coast to the warm lagoons of Baja.
Even those too young to breed migrate part of the way.
“The youth will just hang around the Channel Islands because they’re too young to mate,” Shulman-Janiger said.
The gray whale will start breeding at 5-11 years old, according to the American Cetacean Society Web site (www.acs-la.org).
It may not look like it to the untrained observer, but during the winter and spring months the ocean off of Malibu is practically a gray whale version of the 405 Freeway, with the giant creatures (females can reach 50 feet, with males slightly smaller) shuttling back and forth on their migration, according to the ACS Web site.
The best chance of seeing a whale comes at the various points that jut out into the ocean, Shulman-Janiger said. These represent places where the land runs up against deep water, and the whales will then swim closer to the shore.
“The best spot in Malibu [to see the whales] would be the headlands at Point Dume,” said Nick Steers, who retired as operations captain at Zuma Beach this year after 40 years of service as a lifeguard.
“You can sit up there” and see them, he said. “You have to be very vigilant, and sometimes you’ll see a spout. That’s how you can normally tell they’re out there.”
“Typically, a whale in migration won’t pay attention to the boats or observers on land,” Shulman-Janiger said. “Most of the time it’s all business for the whales, who travel at a steady 5-7 miles per hour on their trip. Sometimes they can get a bit uneasy about all the attention, however.”
Shulman-Janiger recalled a trip where an adult whale slammed its fluke, or tail, against the water as a boat was pursuing it. The passengers took it as a sign that this particular gray whale valued its privacy.
While the mothers may be traveling on a set schedule up and down the coast, for the newborn gray whale there’s still time for play.
“I’ve seen them surfing in,” Shulman-Janiger said, describing an activity where the young whales ride the waves toward the coast. Juveniles have also been known to roll around in the water with sea lions.
“I definitely see this as a play behavior,” Shulman-Janiger said.
The gray whales head south from December to February, then turn around to return to their feeding grounds in the Arctic, Shulman-Janiger said. The season ends in April, but mothers and calves will peak between April 19-26 this year.