"Nature Guide Journal"

28 December 2000

"There she blows!" California gray whales have been traveling along our coast for more than a month now, but the winter holiday weeks are the time many people venture out to see them.

As the 29,000 gray whales pass by the Oregon coast twice each year, perhaps as many humans flock to the shore to catch a glimpse of them. What is it about these mammals that fascinate us so?

Warm-blooded mammals that breathe air and nurse their young, whales actually have a lot in common with us, despite their habitat. There may be a variety of reasons that gray whales, in particular, capture our interest.

Although moderately sized for a baleen whale, the bus-size of gray whales is impressive to those who ride in busses.

California gray whales are unique as the only baleen whale that feeds on the bottom. (Baleen whales use strainers rather than teeth for feeding.) Scooping up several-cubic-foot mouthfuls of life-laden sediment, the whale's massive tongue forces water, sand, and mud through the strainer, retaining the shrimps, worms, and other bottom-dwelling animals to swallow.

Perhaps because they feed on the bottom in relatively shallow water—or perhaps because they apparently don't echo-locate well—gray whales tend to stay much closer to shore than do other large whales. They frequently travel close enough for land-lubbers to see spouts and backs, and to sometimes see flukes (the wide part at the end of the tail) in the air as the whales dive. Dedicated whale watchers may also witness "spy-hopping," breaching (leaping partly out of the water), or courting.

It is thought that spy-hopping, when the whale pokes it's head straight up out of the water and looks around, is done by the whales to locate land and landmarks for navigation.

California gray whales also undertake the longest migration of any mammal as they travel back-and-forth each year between their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic and their winter breeding and calving lagoons in Mexico—10,000 miles round-trip. Yes, you may have seen whales spouting in summer: a handful of gray whales spend the summer feeding off our coast instead of completing the arduous journey to arctic waters.

Although whales are quite graceful and beautiful, the view for most whale watchers is limited to a breathy spout and a slip of back as they pass near our habitat. Gray whales are remarkable for many reasons, but perhaps our fascination with whales is rooted in the fact that our glimpses of these distinguished sea mammals are brief and mysterious.

Whatever the reasons, we are drawn to watch whales. So much so that hundreds of specially trained volunteers make themselves available to help those who want to see their "first whale" and to learn more about them.

From December 26^th to January 2^nd—and again during Spring Break in March—"Whale Watching Spoken Here" volunteers staff 29 public access sites along Oregon's coast between 10am and 1pm. Local sites include Shore Acres State Park and Face Rock Wayside in Bandon. The volunteers offer information, interpretive materials, and whale-watching savvy.

For more information about the Whale Watching Spoken Here program—and for more links to information on whales and whale watching, visit www.whalespoken.org .