Whale Watching
Continues to Attract
Visitors to Mendocino
Since the 1967 Mendocino Whale War
and the gradual recovery of the Pacific
Coast gray whale population, public interest in the largest marine mammals has
increased due to extensive media coverage.
In May 2007, thousands of people
watched TV coverage of two humpback
whales, a female and her calf nicknamed
Delta and Dawn. The pair swam up the
Sacramento River after taking a wrong
turn from San Francisco Bay. Thanks to
veterinary treatment with antibiotics and
cooperation from vessels on the river, the
whales eventually went back to sea.
In February 2007, the carcass of a fin
whale, which washed up on Chadbourne
Beach south of Westport, attracted several
hundred viewers during the few days
before a high tide washed the carcass out
to sea.
Whale watching is a major visitor
attraction along the Mendocino Coast. Although humpback whales are seen during
July and August, the best known migrants
are the gray whales,
which swim south
from the Bering Sea
to the calving lagoons
of Baja California
during December and
January and return to
their Bering Sea feeding grounds in March
and April.
Gray whales, like
humpback, fin, and
blue whales, are baleen whales which feed
by gulping huge quantities of water, then
straining the water out through baleen
filters in their mouths to trap tiny amphipods known as “krill”, which they eat.
Mature gray whales are 50 ft. long, weigh
40 tons and may live as long as 40 years.
NANCY BARTH
Because gray
whales follow a
predictable migration pattern, they
were hunted almost
to extinction before
1972 when whaling
was outlawed. Since
then, the number
of gray whales
migrating along the
Pacific Coast has
increased to an estimated 26,000 animals,
and whale watching has become a favorite
visitor activity.
On the Mendocino coast, people can
see whales from onshore observation
points, whale watching charter boats, and
even on horseback rides. Favorite whale
observation spots on the Mendocino coast
are the Point Arena lighthouse, Navarro
Point, the Mendocino Headlands, Point
Cabrillo, Pomo Bluffs Park south of Fort
Bragg, MacKerricher State Park’s Laguna
Point and Westport.
Novice whale
watchers can find
valuable information
about the winter and
spring gray whale
migrations at coastal
State Parks. The
Ford House Visitor
Center, on the south
MIKE OWYANG side of Mendocino’s
Main Street, features
whale videos and the MacKerricher State
Park Visitors Center north of Fort Bragg
has a gray whale skeleton and part of a
humpback whale skeleton on exhibit.
Both visitor centers, as well as the Point
Cabrillo Lighthouse Gift Shop, and local
bookstores have books about whales and
other marine mammals for sale.
State Parks also offer guided whale
watching walks during winter and spring
months. For information about State Park
interpretive activities, visit the web site:
www.mcn.org//1/mendoparks/index.htm
or call the Ford House at (707) 937-5397
or MacKerricher State Park at (707) 964-
8898.
During Whale Festival weekends,
March 1-2 for Mendocino and March 15-
16 for Fort Bragg, novice whale watchers
can learn from the experts at the Point
Cabrillo Lighthouse from 9 a.m. until
4 p.m. Other Point Cabrillo activities
include presentations by the Coast Guard
and The Marine Mammal Center, morning bird walks, history talks, face painting,
assembling the life size gray whale puzzle,
handling tidepool mollusks and starfish
and looking at anemones in the salt water
aquarium. Experienced whale docents will
be on hand to answer questions about the
whale migration and visitors can borrow
binoculars for a good look at migrating
whales. For a complete schedule of Whale
Festival events at the Point Cabrillo Light
Station and Preserve, visit the web site :
www.pointcabrillo.org/events.htm.
Nancy Barth
