BajaNomad

Gray Whale Diaries

shari - 12-16-2007 at 09:36 AM

Whale season has opened here in baja! Many of you are interested in gray whales so this year I will be doing weekly updates on gray whale activities...describing what kind of behavior you would see during each week. I hope you like these unique insights as to what goes on in the lagoons. I will post these weekly diaries in our website www.bahiaasuncion.com in the page of What's up in Asuncon this week...found in the left hand column or pages. Would you like me to post them here too? Here is the first one...feedback and questions welcome.
GRAY WHALE DIARIES
For over 20 years I have had the honour of observing gray whales in their natural habitat and have learned some interesting things about these noble creatures. So it is with great pride that I share these unique insights and stories with you. Each week, I will describe a little of what is going on in the Gray whale population...where they are & what they are doing with photos examples to help describe their behavior. I hope you enjoy this journey with the Grays.

DEC.15 is the official start of whale season in Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Scammons Lagoon) by Guerrero Negro. This National Park is in the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve (the largest reserve in Latin America) and was the world’s first gray whale sanctuary established in 1973 in response to a ban on commercial whaling. This lagoon is the world’s largest calving lagoon where over half the gray whale population is born. This is also the most northerly calving lagoon and the first to fill up with pregnant females in early January. Any day now we should be seeing the first whales arriving.
Each year varies as to when the whales start arriving as it depends on the weather in the northern feeding grounds. If the ice pack forms early, the whales head south earlier and if there is an Indian summer, the whales stay longer up north feeding. But the pregnant females hurry down so they can have their calves in the warm protected lagoons. The whales travel about 5 knots and stretch out in a long parade from Alaska to Baja (the longest migration of any marine mammal)
Calving and mating takes place at the same time...so the females who aren’t pregnant are being courted by the males all the way down during the migration.


Sometimes you will see 2 males flanking a female, both vying for her attention. One distinctive behavior we see at this time is what I call Tail Lifting or Not Now Honey, I Have a Headache! This occurs when the female is being bothered by the males and she is not ready to mate. She actually comes out of the water backwards, tail first lifting her genitals clear out of the water so the male cant get to them. It is quite a sight!

dipper.JPG - 25kB

shari - 12-16-2007 at 11:04 AM

Here is another photo of "Guys...read my tail...I'm NOT in the mood!"

sntailup.jpg - 21kB

Santiago - 12-16-2007 at 11:30 AM

Shari: do all the females eventually come into esterous (sp) and the males hang around knowing this will happen or do only some females mate each year. I thought I heard that the females either gave birth or mated each year - is this true? Aren't there sometimes nurse or sister females along with the mothers/babies in the lagoon nursery areas. Would these be females too young to mate? Does mating take place at the mouth of the lagoon or even in the open sea? I have been to San Ignacio once, in February, but did not see any mating behavior that I could recognize.
Thanks

shari - 12-16-2007 at 11:45 AM

All good questions..so this point about females mating each year was the case when grays were near extinction...they HAD to get their numbers up to survive however animals are intelligent and now that they have recovered, birth rates have slowed down...it's that natural way they have of keeping things in balance...only reproduce if food is available...so...females become sexually mature at around 6-8 years old..the "nurse" whales that we see accompanying the pregnant females can be either too old or too young to reproduce or who knows, maybe they are practised midwives! But early in January we often see these pairs of whales...they are very friendly in the days before they drop their calves. Mating can take place anywhere the female wants...but only when she is ready to conceive...she knows it and only then allows the males to do the deed...they don't appear to have any attachment to the father...just slam bam thank you man...and off the males go to smoke cigarettes and brag down around Cabo. Mating takes place over several months dec-march and the gestation period is 12-13 months. You can easily tell when they are mating as there is ALOT of splashing, high tails, rolling around etc. and sometimes the pink floyd appears. It is not a good idea to approach mating whales as they are totally oblivious to boats around them and could easily smash your boat in the heat of the moment!

a pregnant whale and her midwife

shari - 12-16-2007 at 11:52 AM

Tlhis is a good example of these pairs of whales hanging out together before the birth...they don't have anything else to do so often hang around the pangas and each of them want attention...they take turns getting pats and rubs and sometimes push each other out of the way!

sire pello bello.jpg - 20kB

dccf - 12-16-2007 at 12:04 PM

Very interesting Shari, keep it comin'.

jorgie - 12-17-2007 at 06:25 AM

Gray Whales Diary, is there a chance that you will one day publish your studies ? There is a book in there, probably two or three as the science could morf into a love story......I can think of at least one......

shari - 12-17-2007 at 08:17 AM

I published the Gray Whale Handbook many years ago and now I finally have the manuscript of my second bood..."Extroardinary Tales of Humans & Whales" ready to publish...one day. The Handbook is available for $5 here. Maybe I should sell it in the Nomad Store!

wilderone - 12-17-2007 at 11:02 AM

Contact Sunbelt Publications about your book - maybe easier than you think. I'd like an autographed handbook - one for the Baja library too!
Whale season "diary" is a wonderful thing - would be great historical record as well.

jorgie - 12-19-2007 at 07:02 AM

reread this post.......Shari, ya need to do more on the Gray Whales. Most don't know of your ten years studying these wonderful children of nature......

Iflyfish - 12-20-2007 at 03:43 PM

Your experience with these wonderful animals is invaluable and you should definitely document your experiences and knowledge. We often do not think of the historical context in which we live. I started visiting Mexico over forty years ago and was in places where traditional dress and customs still were in practice. They no longer are and I was witness to the end of an era and did not realize it. Some of my old photographs for expample are actually documentary evidence of a lost time. You really should publish, wilderone is spot on with this. I am now of the age to see my toys in museums and have better photos than are hanging in some museums.
You have a very unique and important story to tell. I have heard some of it and know others too would and will be interested.

Iflyfish

shari - 12-21-2007 at 10:03 AM

thanks for that Ifly...diver arrived today and we are missing you...I would like to put together another Nomad whale trip the first week of march sometime as we had so much fun last season!

meme - 12-21-2007 at 10:13 AM

If you are doing a Whale Trip in March Shari can you count our group in?
Would sure be Great!

David K - 12-21-2007 at 10:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by shari
All good questions..so this point about females mating each year was the case when grays were near extinction...they HAD to get their numbers up to survive however animals are intelligent and now that they have recovered, birth rates have slowed down...it's that natural way they have of keeping things in balance...only reproduce if food is available...so...females become sexually mature at around 6-8 years old..the "nurse" whales that we see accompanying the pregnant females can be either too old or too young to reproduce or who knows, maybe they are practised midwives! But early in January we often see these pairs of whales...they are very friendly in the days before they drop their calves. Mating can take place anywhere the female wants...but only when she is ready to conceive...she knows it and only then allows the males to do the deed...they don't appear to have any attachment to the father...just slam bam thank you man...and off the males go to smoke cigarettes and brag down around Cabo. Mating takes place over several months dec-march and the gestation period is 12-13 months. You can easily tell when they are mating as there is ALOT of splashing, high tails, rolling around etc. and sometimes the pink floyd appears. It is not a good idea to approach mating whales as they are totally oblivious to boats around them and could easily smash your boat in the heat of the moment!


Photos from Erle Stanley Gardner's 1960 'Hunting the Desert Whale' Perhaps the first photos of a male gray whale's "dork" in action??!!

whale dork-r.JPG - 29kB

David K - 12-21-2007 at 10:29 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by wilderone
Contact Sunbelt Publications about your book - maybe easier than you think. I'd like an autographed handbook - one for the Baja library too!
Whale season "diary" is a wonderful thing - would be great historical record as well.


I agree... if you need a name or contact there, I can provide!

jorgie - 12-21-2007 at 11:32 AM

Shari's ten year official study gives her a background not available to folks like me......it's an important part of any trip to watch the Gray Whales

Iflyfish - 12-21-2007 at 06:02 PM

David, is that pic what I think it is? I would hate to be in a small boat and have that thing land in my lap!

Shari, I miss you guys too! Abrazos forte around for my Asuncion amigos and amigas!

Iflyfish

shari - 12-21-2007 at 10:11 PM

How about Sunday March 9th...both sirenita and I can go out...lets plan a trip! Maybe camp there saturday the 8th...who's in?

jorgie - 12-22-2007 at 06:14 AM

how many pangas/folks will you be able to accomodate and could you do two or three days ??

SiReNiTa - 12-22-2007 at 08:53 PM

o0o0h fun!! but i think i'm gonna work sunday morning...remeber i do the whale tours for the hotel on sunday??? i can go saturday for a while and then drive back out sunday after our tour and meet you for lunch or something??

Wiles - 12-25-2007 at 11:57 AM

From the album "Double Pink Floyd Live"

PinkFloydscrop.jpg - 43kB

shari - 12-27-2007 at 08:41 AM

I do believe this is a case of a wannabe or junior floyd (the smaller whiter one) learning the ropes. There are often 2 males flanking every female in heat, each one vying for her attention...hmmmm...wonder which one won? I once saw a flock of floyds off of Tofino on Vancouver Island...thought I was hallucinating man....when we researchers got together to discuss this phenomenon, we came up with the idea that the juveniles were having kind of a spitting contest...or my floyd's bigger than your floyd kind of party...sort of trying out the apparatus...they were all in a group, waving the floyds around together. Definately one of the funniest things I'd ever seen in the whale world.