Fluke Finale

5/10/08. Today is bittersweet. The gray whale migration is coming to an end, with most of the gray whales well on their way back to Alaska. However a few stragglers are still passing by southern California, primarily cow/calf pairs who lingered in the Mexican lagoons to allow the newborn calves to get bigger and stronger. Only a few cow/calf pairs were observed this past week, so even their numbers are dwindling down. The official whale watchers end their surveillance on May 15, bringing the 2007-2008 gray whale census to a close.

With the optimistic hope of seeing one last whale but a quiet resignation that I may see nothing, I drove to Palos Verdes for my last gray whale watch day of the migration (and my sabbatical) season. My slim hope of seeing a whale rested on luck (that a whale would pass by) and the challenge of spotting cow/calf pairs, which are especially difficult to see because the mothers are protective of their young and keep a low profile. It's hard to believe that an animal as big as a whale can hide, but they do a remarkably good job of it. A calf rarely leaves the mother's side, and the cow swims (and more to the point, breathes) while revealing almost none of its massive girth above water. The official observers whimsically call low-profile whales "snorklers". I call them "stealth whales" because, when you do manage to spot one, it is fascinating to watch these large gray/black animals swim past so unobtrusively as to be nearly invisible.

The morning haze was beginning to lift when I arrived at Palos Verdes, and after two long hours of lonely seas, my patience was rewarded by the arrival of a wonderfully showy gray whale. This solo whale (unusual for so late in the season!) produced many visible blows, and frequently showed much of his back including his dorsal hump and knuckles. After surfacing several times, the whale began to swim out to sea, away from the coast. Before he left us, he took a deep dive and graciously fluked, displaying a perfect gray whale tail high in the air. A wonderful way to end my whale watching season!

I stayed at Palos Verdes a while longer until the winds picked up and I reluctantly began to consider heading home. But I wasn't quite ready to go, and as I continued to scan the waters I unexpectedly saw a small blow. I was virtually certain that it was a whale, but the official observers were suspiciously oblivious, so I wondered if I was hallucinating. I continued to watch the same area, and soon I saw another small blow. It was definitely a whale. No longer able to contain my excitement, I ran to the whale observers, who were still mysteriously oblivious to the whale's presence. (At this point in the story, I must apologize for losing any pretense of being humble. Please chalk this up to irrepressible whale-watching exuberance, and genuine pride in how much my whale-watching skills have improved these last few months.) The conversation went something like this:

Me (running to the observers): "Hey, there's a whale out there!!!"
Observer A (not my favorite observer): "Yea, yea."
Me: "I've seen two blows. It's a very low-profile whale!"
Observer A: "Oh, you're serious??"
Me: "Yes!!!"
Observer A: "Are you sure it's not a bird? Were there any birds nearby?"
Me: "No. It's definitely a whale. I'm virtually certain it's a whale."
Observer A: "Well, bird splashes can look a lot like blows..."
Observer B: "No, no. Ellen's good at this. If she says it's a whale..."
Observer B (a few seconds later): "I've got it -- I see the prints".

Observer B was the person I notified when I found the distant humpback whale a few weeks ago, and apparently she now trusts my whale-spotting abilities. Very cool indeed! (I doubt there is any professional honor that could be bestowed on me that would make me as proud as I was at this moment. :) The whale eluded us for a while after my initial sighting, but eventually it surfaced again and we all saw its blows this time. Then it essentially vanished; we were unable to track it once it headed into sparkly sunlit water. However Observer B could clearly see two sets of prints, so this sighting was officially recorded as a cow/calf pair.

And so my final day of gray whale watching ended with several beautiful displays by a solo gray whale, and the thrill of finding a stealth cow/calf pair all by myself, one that even the official observers did not notice. I could not have asked for a better ending. My whale-watching season concludes with the immense pleasure and gratificiation of knowing that the official 2007-2008 gray whale census count for the LA chapter of the American Cetacean Society includes 2 gray whales that are "my" sightings and would not have been counted otherwise. Way cool. Beyond cool. In an infinitessimally small way, my ubiquitous presence at Palos Verdes this season has been recorded for history. :)