Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Sun-lit spouts

Today the ocean was flat calm and blue, the air was crisp, visibility was good, and the sun was shining bright in the western sky.  Perfect conditions for seeing whale spouts from shore!

 

Quite a few Gray Whales (Eschrichtius robustus) were making their way south past Bodega Head.

 

It's likely that they're en route to southern California or Baja California for the calving season that occurs between December and March.

 

Weather conditions look similar for the next day or two, so keep your eyes open for these sun-lit spouts if you're at the coast!

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2 comments:

  1. Jeremy LongDecember 11, 2013 at 10:25 AM

    From an invertophile who cares about baleen whales primarily b/c they eat inverts...any guesses about how long it takes these animals to travel from Bodega to San Diego?

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  2. Jackie SonesDecember 11, 2013 at 11:48 AM

    Hi, Jeremy! Here's a rough guess, heavily dependent on two very quick Google searches. I googled "Gray Whale traveling speed" and came up with several estimates of 3-6 mph, so I'm going to use 5 mph for this calculation. I used Google Maps to look up the distance between Bodega Bay and San Diego and came up with 560 miles (that's on land, but we'll use it for now). So without stopping and at an average speed of 5 mph, it would take them about 4.5 days to travel from Bodega Bay to San Diego. I wonder if that's true? :)

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