Gray Whale Observation Posts: Week of April 30, 2003 Kodiak, Alaska: Celebrating the Whales Biologist Susan Payne reminds us that Whale Fest Kodiak ran from April 11-19 this year, timed to coincide with the annual northbound migration of the gray whales as they pass Kodiak Island. Susan reports huge crowds and great weather for the event. It was a fun week of storytelling, films, radio talk shows, children's activities, art shows, lectures by experts and more. One of the first-of-its-kind-in the U.S. events was the Underwater Cetacean Sound Project--an underwater sound adventure where kids and parents listen-swim-float to poetry, environmental sounds, and strange human music by both Christian Swenson and Jim Nollman. Jim Nollman is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of interspecies communication. He is a musician and acoustician, probably best known for creating a real-time musical interface with the orcas of Western Canada. He has recorded instances of orcas making the correct chord changes with his guitar melodies. One of the sponsors for this event was the Navy Airship Search Network. What do you imagine an airship is, and what would it search for? Old-time blimps and ultra-modern sensors are an exciting new way to track whales, and something that many of you would find fascinating. Check their website for photos, and see an article from a U.S. Navy newspaper that tells you more. Out on the water, Eric from the vessel Tenbears near Kodiak doesn?t have much gray whale news from Kodiak because he?s been in Hawaii! But there are whales in Hawaii, too, Eric says: "Aloha. Back from Hawaii just a week now and haven't heard much from around these parts. I can tell you that upon our arrival in Kauai (4/3) there were still quite a few humpbacks visible from shore vistas. Also there were lots of Pacific Golden Plovers in various states of plumage. Press releases indicated there were still around 1000 humpbacks in the islands during that time period. By the time we left (4/18) our humpback sightings had dwindled to one or two per day and you had to really look to notice the Plovers. Each day there were notably fewer and fewer." No reports of the first whale babies in Kodiak yet, so stay tuned. Seward, Alaska: First Baby Arrives! Captain Leslie Hines had exciting news again this week. Last time she shared the excitement of the first gray whale sighting of the season on April 1! This week, after talking with the crew of the Fjordland, Leslie reports the most exciting news of all: "We have a confirmation of the first definite calf of 2003, seen on Friday, April 25!" She reports lots of orca sightings, too. Capt. Leslie recaps the other latest Gray Whale sightings from Kenai Fjords Tours in Seward, Alaska: No grays were sighted on April 15 or 16, but April 17 brought 6 gray whales just south of Rugged Island. No whales again on April 18, but on 10 April at least ten were seen .5 nautical miles (nm) southwest of Rugged Island. Two other groups were seen off Barwell Island and off Bear Glacier. No whales April 20-23, but April 24 brought several sightings in the same areas as seen on 19 April. Ten or more grays were seen April 25 between Rugged and Cheval, and again the same numbers on April 26, with many more blows on the horizon. The total for 27 April was 7 whales: 4 whales SE of Rugged Island 1 nm. And 3 whales just SW of Rugged Island. Spotters saw three more on April 28 just east of Cheval. Now that they've welcomed their first baby of the season, you can bet they'll be watching for more! Can you find the locations mentioned, using a detailed map? Why do you think the whales choose these routes? Vancouver/Tofino and Ucluelet, British Columbia: Skittish Whales Jamie's Whaling Station and Adventure Centres, Tofino and Ucluelet, B.C. had this news: "Well, the sun is finally shining, and we are hoping it's here to stay. We have been quite busy lately in both Tofino and Ucluelet. The migration is still coming; however it has slowed a bit and now with the calves and cows, the whales are a little more skittish. In Clayoquot Sound, we have the return of 'Two-Dot-Star', a regular summer resident who has been spending most of her summers here since 1975! It looks like she is intending to spend another summer here as she has been in the Cow Bay feeding area for a couple of weeks now. On Thursday we had a surprise visit from a False Killer Whale--a sight we haven't seen since about 1988! The little fellow hung out quite close to our boat for an hour giving crew and tourists a fantastic look! A False Killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) is a small porpoise. They are rare, especially in our waters, up to 20 ft in length and weigh up to 2.2 tons. They like to eat tuna fish and squid and occasionally have been known to attack Humpback whales in packs like the killer whales. They are mainly all black or dark gray except for a light gray 'W' shape on their undersides between the flippers. They are quite playful and like to bow-ride, wake-ride and breach! They are quite similar looking to Short-finned Pilot Whales and Risso's Dolphins. "The news from Barkley Sound is that the Gray Whales have been hard to find, with the boats sometimes coming all the way up to Long Beach before they find whales. We also had a visit from a pod of Orcas early last week and they headed off to sea on Monday Afternoon. Well, that's all for this week. We'll have more news for you next time." Cheers, Jamie at Jamie's Whaling Station and Adventure Centres Santa Barbara, California: Cows and Calves Carol writes with news from the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS): "Almost all of the whales passing through here now are cow calf pairs and often very close to the shore." But just look at the exciting news, and see what you think about the question at the end! The following are from the naturalists reports: In the big kelp bed off Arroyo Burro beach, we found 2 moms and 2 calves! Maybe the same group sighted on Saturday? They were just enjoying the kelp. It's one last rest stop before turning that corner and encountering the colder water, rougher seas and swimming against the current. At one point one of the moms was on the shore side of the kelp and must have been touching her belly to the sand. The boat stayed outside of the kelp in about 59 feet of water. We estimated the kelp bed to be in 20 to 30 feet of water. The whales were all doing spy hops to clear their blowholes in the confused seas. At noon, we followed a cow/calf gray pair west of Leadbetter, and they frolicked for lots of good up-close views. Captain Matt noticed them surfacing just in front of our bow, and so (darn!) we had to stay right there along side of them in order not to disturb, which gave us several good long looks at tandem breathing sequences, although no flukes. At noon we saw a cow/calf pair but it was so close to the harbor that it got very crowded and so the captain decided to make a break for open ocean towards the islands. Excellent views of 2 separate cow/calf pairs of grays. Both pairs were very close to shore and not far from the harbor. We have more frequent sightings of humpbacks and a few blue whales showing up to delight us now that the grays are almost gone. A pod of False Killer Whales was spotted. They have not been seen in the Channel in 30 years,  according to one of the captains. Question of the week: Do whales throw up?? Point Vicente, CA (ACS /Los Angeles Gray Whale Census): Big Numbers! Mike and Winston at the ACS/LA census report another above average two weeks for the gray whales. Mike sums up the situation as of April 27: "For the northbound migration we now have more than 8 of the last 19 seasons. For the cow/calf northbound we have more than 10 of the last 19 seasons. We now have more calves than last season (2002)--which was considered a very good season." Mike jokes: "Our last whale of day on April 25 must have been confused, or maybe overslept, because it was southbound!" On April 24, the census count reached and passed 1,000 whales northbound, including five mother/baby pairs that day. But April 23 had the most mother/baby pairs, with 8 sightings. On April 20, Mike and Winston really had fun: "Today we had a real good cow calf pair! The calf did a mini lunge. Mom and calf swam REALLY CLOSE TO SHORE and then milled around. Mom spy hopped in the cove as well." April 19 was also a special day: "Most of our whales today were cow/calf pairs, including the special treat of a BLUE WHALE COW/CALF PAIR. They came into 20 mil, so there was no mistake. We watched as mom showed us her huge flukes. Two separate times we saw the calf rolling and the sides of its flukes." GREAT News at Point Piedras Blancas (Wayne Perryman's Cow/Calf Census near San Diego) "We had a great week counting gray whales," reported Wayne Perryman from his census location on April 21. "This was the second-highest weekly count since 1998. We finished up with 76 gray whale calves seen passing the site. Saturday, April 19, was our big day, with 20 cow/calf pairs sighted. This was the second-highest count for a day since 1998. Remember that in 2000 we only counted 96 and in 2001 we counted 87 and those were counts for the whole season, not just a week. So things are pretty exciting here along the central coast. "This week was another good one of gray whale calf counting. Total for the week was 65 pairs, compared to 76 last week, but we lost almost a full day to rain. This puts us on the brink of passing the total for 1995 (total count of 194 pairs) and we have already passed the total counts for 1999, 2000, and 2001. So, pretty much the worst thing that we can end up with is the 5th highest estimate in a 10-year series. And, the party is not over yet. Things have the feeling of slowing down a bit, but the last week of April through the first week of May is usually a very busy period for us." Copyright 2003 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form