Posted by Cpt Ahab on April 23, 2005 at 05:54:43:
In Reply to: Re: You've pretty much missed them posted by Chuck Tribolet on April 21, 2005 at 14:31:48:
For 2 decades now, I've watched Grey Whale from our house in Mendocino. My experience is definitely different than yours, Mr.Tribolet.
Responding to the kayakers "best southern-Calif kayak watching site" [as of Apr20], mid-April IMHO see's the last of Grey Whale. Of course, individual stragglers may exist. But the "herd" has passed. Arguably each leg probably starts and ends each season at slightly different intervals than particular preceding years.
Also, though I do not have supporting marine research, anecdotally my experience of the "migration" is that the entire population of Grey Whales isn't located "together" at a point in time say in Mexico lagoons nor in Seattle, Canada, or Alaska. Pods of Greys in Jan/Feb can be found much further south than Mexican birthing lagoons, rounding Cabo in the Sea of Cortez. At least that's my experience while fishing the longshore current on the Pacific side of Cabo. And I speculate that many Greys might not do full round trip "migrations", staying/locating at mid-route points until the bulk of the herd is again passing by.
While SCUBA diving San Miguel in the northern US Channel Islands, I had the crew of the Vision/Santa Barbara (Glen Fitzler's Truth Aquatics operation) tell me that a Grey Whale stopped and stayed at San Miguel feeding on an exceptionally abundant year of krill. I saw this whale mid-July (and BTW the "clouds" of brown were awesome too.)
What I tried to covey to the whale-watching kayaker was "hurry"; finding Grey Whale this time of year off Southern Calif waters, seasonally, may not produce success. The probability is low. But I concede miracles happen.
Sincerely, the best of luck to the requesting kayaker. Hope he finds a slow, curious, photogenic Grey and has the experience of a life time.
________________________________________________
http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/ask01/0239.html (2001Oct09 : Phil Clapham (phillip.clapham@noaa.gov))
http://www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf/allweb/BD8BE4B68A31DADF80256968003E7303
http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/ask96/0067.html