Today, 23,000 gray whales are found only in the Pacific. Gray whales surface surface every three to five minutes to breath and can remain submerged for up to 15 minutes. Sparse hairs are found on the rostrum, especially in young whales. Two to five throat creases which allow for limited expansion of their throats during feeding. The gray whale is a baleen whale and has approximately 300 plates of cream-colored baleen hanging from its upper jaw.
Gray whale series#
Instead, they have a low hump and a series of six to twelve knuckles or bumps. They are gray with white patches, which mostly consist of areas where barnacles and lice have attached themselves to the whales. The average weight of a gray whale is 16 tons (32,000 pounds) and some have reached weights of 30 to 40 tons. Males grow to 45 feet - longer than a city bus - and females are slightly larger. Gray whales are medium sized whales, reaching up to 45 feet in length. In addition you get the best view of McWay Falls from this trail.Ĭalifornia State Park Ranger guided tours weekends in January and February, 10 am - noon at the Vista turnout located at mile marker 37.0, just north of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.
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There is a wonderful little trail that takes you out to a point that is great for whale watching. Whale Watching at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Bring your binoculars and enjoy this spectacular sight from the many roadside turnouts, restaurants, and cafe's. Once when going south to the lagoons of Mexico (late fall-early winter) and once again when returning to Alaska (late winter-early spring). The entire population of Gray Whales migrates past the Big Sur coastline twice a year. Occasionally the water is filled with spouts going off one after another, looking like a long line of steam locomotives spouting out in the ocean. This is often when the best viewing can take place because they are moving more slowly because of their young calves and also they are swimming against the current.Īnother spectacular sight is watching them as they migrate south. It has been said this is to protect them from attacks from Great White Sharks. On their northern migration they swim close to shore, with their babies on the shore side. There is sometimes what appears to be an overlap in migration patterns with some whales still heading south while others are moving north. Beginning in February you begin seeing whales migrating back to Alaska with their newborn babies by their sides. December to early February the California Gray Whales are migrating south. Gray whales can be seen from the highway turnouts in Big Sur from December through April. They are the only baleen whale in which the upper jaw is longer than the lower jaw.Gray Whale watching in Big Sur, California.Gray whales carry over 400 pounds of barnacles and whale lice.While this one was certainly spectacular, gray whales are generally considered to make one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling an average of 10,000 miles round-trip from feeding grounds in northern latitudes in the summer to breeding grounds near Mexico in the winter. The western gray whale holds the record for longest known mammal migration! In 2011-2012 a female gray whale was recorded migrating a total of 13,988 miles (22,511 kilometers.However, the western population is currently listed as endangered in the ESA, with around 200-300 individuals remaining today. Once listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, the eastern population successfully recovered and was delisted in 1994.It is likely that commercial whaling played a role in reducing their population to extinction. Gray whales once existed in the Atlantic Ocean.Whalers nicknamed gray whales “devil fish” because of their aggressive reactions when harpooned.
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