Gray Matter

Gray Whale Trivia

Scientific Name: Eschrichtius robustus
Family: Baleen Whale
Class: Marine Mammal

Gray Whales & Dana Point

• Experts report that the gray whale uses the Dana Point Headlands, 200-foot cliffs near the harbor, as a landmark to check their migration path.
• Approximately 25 percent of the gray whale population follow the coastline during migration. That means during peak season (December – March) 40 – 50 whales pass by Dana Point each day.
• Dana Point's Festival of Whales will celebrate its 40th anniversary Saturday and Sunday, March 3 & 4 and 10 & 11. The community has celebrated the return of California's great leviathan since Dana Point Harbor was first constructed. Author and historian Doris Walker was the first chairperson of the Festival.

Migration

• Gray whales migrate once a year leaving Alaska in October and arriving in Mexico to give birth or mate.
• The gray whale undertakes the longest migration by any mammal each year – traveling more than 6,000 miles in each direction. That's more than half their lives in transit – typical of our Southern California lifestyle!
• The whales travel up to 100 miles per day, taking eight to 10 weeks to migrate. If humans traveled the same distance (as the whale swims) in a car, it would take four full days, driving 60 miles per hour, 24 hours per day.
• The whales make their return trip from February through July.

Vital Stats

Birth length: 12 to 15 feet long. Babies can grow up to a foot per week for the first few months.
After two months they are 25 feet long.
Average length: 45 feet (about the size of a bus)
Weight: 35 tons (more than twice the weight of a bus)
Life span: 50 to 60 years

Behavior

• Spouting: When a whale surfaces to breathe, it shoots up a three-to-four foot spout of air, condensed water and sea water.
• Sounding: After taking several shorter dives, whales often take a deeper dive, also known as sounding. Their tale, or fluke, rises entirely out of the water as they dive.
• Spyhopping: In order to scan their surroundings, whales often lift their entire head out of the water.
• Breaching: Whales sometimes throw up to three-quarters of their body out of the water. Some scientists believe it is to communicate, others think it is to play.

History

• The California Gray Whale has migrated along the coast for thousands of years.
• Though hunted to near extinction in the mid-1800s and again in the 1920s, the gray has grown to a population of 24,000, making it the world's only endangered whale that has ever reproduced back to a safe number.
• The gray whale was removed from the endangered species list on June 16, 1994.

Food

• The gray whale does not have teeth. Baleen plates trap food while dirt and water are spit out between the plates. Often times, gray whales simply place the right side of their head on the ocean floor and suck in the top sediment layer to eat.
• A mother gray whale pumps 50 gallons of milk a day into her infant's mouth. Approximately 53-percent butterfat, the milk allows the calf to gain about three pounds an hour. Human milk is roughly only two-percent butterfat.
• Gray whales mainly snack around the clock on amphipods (tiny organisms that live in the muddy ocean floor) during the summer months, gaining up to a ton in a season.

For Festival of Whales Event Information, call (888) 440-4309 or visit festivalofwhales.org. Full-color images are available upon request. Please contact Penny Elia at (949) 499-4499 to arrange media interviews or excursions.

Facts and Fun

Overview
Festival of Whales
Facts at-a-Glance
Gray Matter
Mongoose Cup Press Release
Ocean Awareness Day Press Release