Gray Whale Census Update – Pt. Vicente: Fifteen Grays! One GRAY WHALE whale in a pair of whales BREACHED five times! Although they were about three miles offshore, we could clearly see the whale as it came out of the water; after breaching, it did a lunge. One gray whale swam VERY slowly; after watching it for an hour, a second gray whale came in from offshore and joined up with the first whale. They milled, and one whale did a bubble blast. Then they logged, and one whale lifted its head high twice in a partial spyhop. We spotted two sightings at about the same time. One gray whale stayed out by the buoy and milled for an hour and a half; a big splash likely resulted from an unseen breach. The other whale moved slowly through our viewing area, fluking frequently. Two sightings came close enough to release audible blows. Gray whales in all twelve sightings fluked. LOTS of FIN WHALES: at least six in the Redondo Canyon area, and one or two toward Santa Catalina Island. We also spotted a MINKE WHALE one time. POSSIBLE ORCAS: we tracked four or five “mystery whales” in the distant haze, that looked very much like orcas – but they were too far away (and too distorted in the haze) to verify. We also spotted COMMON DOLPHIN and BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN. -Alisa
Please check out our record counts: http://www.acs-la.org/
