Gray Whale Migration Update: March 5, 2003 Today's Report Includes: Homeward Bound! Migration Highlights from Canada to Mexico: Sleep: Challenge Question #6 A Photo Tour of Laguna Ojo de Liebre: Link to Lesson Salt of the Earth: Mystery Photo Identified, Link to Lesson Gray Whale Adaptations: Challenge Questions #7, #8 Salt of the Earth: Mystery Photo Identified, Link to Lesson The Average: Discussion of Challenge Question #3 Good Nurseries: Discussion of Challenge Question #4 One, Two, Three, Breathe: Discussion of Challenge Question #5 What?s This? Looking Ahead Homeward Bound! Gray Whale Migration Route (Click on face of map) What an exciting week for whale watchers! The past week brought the turnaround date we?ve been waiting for (see ACS graph below), and the northbound whales are now in the majority. And volunteers at the ACS census at Point Vicente Lighthouse(33.44N,-118.24W) report the season's first northbound cow/calf pair sighted on February 27! More and more people in our network of observers along the Pacific coast are seeing whales on the move. Read on for the latest news! Migration Highlights from Canada to Mexico Kodiak Photo Keith Jones Up in Kodiak, Alaska, folks are still waiting for their first migratoy gray to return. Eric from the Tenbears boat says, "As you know, Alaska is experiencing one of the warmest winters ever. No snow here on Kodiak, just rain and strong southerly winds most of the winter. With all the southerly winds this winter, sea water temperatures are also very warm: by some people?s accounts, several degrees. One fisherman friend told me that bottom temperatures along the 60fm contours were 43 degrees F. That was the warmest temperatures he had ever seen at this time of year. What's that mean for plankton and the like? Time will tell. Our Narrow Cape whales are still around. I'd say they might as well be considered year round residents now. When the weather is good they move offshore and when the weather is bad they move inshore and can be seen from Narrow Cape." Vancover, B.C. South of Kodiak, migrating grays have reached Canada?s British Columbia! "Glad to cover the west coast of the Island again for you," says Jamie of Jamie's Whaling Station and Adventure Centres in Tofino and Ucluelet, British Columbia. "A few Gray whales have been around all winter and the airlines had reported sightings of migrating Grays earlier in February. For the last four days, we have been having consistent sightings with groups of two and threes. On March 3 we spotted three groups of three. With the Pacific Rim Whale Fest coming up March 15 to 30, we look forward to having a lot of people out on the water for the Gray Whale migration." Till next time, Cheers!" Westport, WA Heading south, we have this report from Capt. Geoff Grillo of Advantage Sport Fishing in Westport, Washington reports many northbound whales in the last week. "I must have seen 20 to 40 whales today in the spot we call the" whale hole" and around the north beach area off Ocean Shores Washington. Most of the sightings today were from 8 to 14 fathoms and it was a spectacular day: flat, beautiful, blue ski and the Olympic mountains white with snow to the northeast of our fishing area. Our resident whales slipped out of the bay last summer and have been absent for some time. I sure hope they return, as in past seasons. I just got a new computer and a digital camera that I plan on having on the boat and as soon as I get up to speed I may be able to send some action photos of our fishing and whale watch adventures for you." (Thanks, Geoff!) Santa Barbara, CA Farther south at Santa Barbara, CA, volunteers at Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary saw two adults with a calf on February 9. They are seeing lots of adults, mostly groups of two and three. Most were traveling slowly. Some were milling around, which is whale-watcher lingo for just sort of swimming in a circle. Some were entertaining them with flipper slaps or pec slaps, where they roll on their side and slap the water with their pectoral fin. Other whales were stationary, or resting on the surface, not traveling. Perhaps this is what passes for sleep in the cetacean world. Whale watching tourists on the boat wondered whether whales sleep. What do YOU think? Challenge Question #6: "Do whales sleep?" (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Los Angeles, CA ACS Whales have made a great show at Point Vicente Lighthouse where the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society (ACS) is counting them. This graph (see Web) shows the results. Volunteers, including our friends Mike and Winston, watch for the stars of the "fluke-and-spout spectacular" from a cliff 125 feet above the ocean. From here they can see the northbound cow/calf pairs and juveniles that prefer the nearshore migratory corridor off southern California. (Southbound whales travel farther offshore, so ACS northbound counts are usually higher than southbound counts.) Read the graph (C/C means cow/calf pairs) to figure out: When would you say the northbound migration started in earnest? When did the turnaround, when numbers of northbound whales exceed southbound, begin? By what date was this year?s turnaround probably complete? Photo Mike & Winston Besides the excitement of the first cow/calf pair, volunteers had a great time watching whales breaching and bubble blasting. This is a barrage of bubbles when the whale exhales while under water. One breaching whale came up with its mouth wide open gave watchers a great view of the baleen visible even without binoculars! On Feb. 28 they saw another cow/calf pair and something unusual. "We saw the calf a lot before we saw the cow. We worried that we may have an abandoned calf, but Mom was just not showing. The calf swam below a small boat and it was as big as the boat." San Diego, CA Off the coast of San Diego, CA, biologist Wayne Perryman, a leading government specialist on whale cows and calves, is getting ready to start his cow/calf census on March 16th. We?ll hear more from him next time. Now let?s continue south to the lagoons, where hundred of whales are at rest and play! A Photo Tour of Laguna Ojo de Liebre: Link to Lesson Clip: Whale Up Close! Watch It Now Tips Would you like to visit some whales? Join us on a photo tour of Laguna Ojo de Liebre, one of the four nursery lagoons on Mexico?s Baja Peninsula. What is a whale "footprint" and what does it tell you? What are two facts about the barnacles on gray whales? About how many weeks do whales swim to get from the Arctic to the lagoons of Mexico? What is the name of the area in Mexico set aside to protect endangered plants and animals? What is the world's longest and narrowest peninsula? You'll know the answers to these questions when you join Jane on a day of whale watching in Laguna Ojo de Liebre. But first, see this: Now Playing: video clip of a whale close up! (Look, listen, and be careful so you don't get splashed!) IMPORTANT: Mac users and some Netscape users cannot view the video file directly from the web with a simple mouse click on the URL. This is only possible with Internet Explorer and Windows. In order to view a clip directly from the web, you must copy the URL address, open Windows Media Player, select "Open URL" from the "File" menu, and paste the address into the window that appears. We?ve got you covered with these tech tips: Click on Tips in the box (right). Then list what you think would be good rules for whale watchers to obey while in the lagoon. Now you?re ready to click here to join the fun: Lagoon Tour: Whale Watching at Laguna Ojo de Liebre TEACHERS: This real-world, high-interest nonfiction selection about the lagoon tour comes with a Journey North Reading and Writing Connection---a fun menu of options that focuses on Writers Workshop with the photographs as catalysts. Just click on the URL above and then click on the link to the Reading and Writing Lesson. Here?s one of the lesson?s pre-writing activities: Try This: Rules! Rules! Rules! Download the photo (enlarged version) from Jane?s lagoon tour that features Rules for Whale Watching. Post the rules on chart paper or make an overhead transparency. Invite students to read the list of rules. Ask questions to generate a discussion: Why are rules important? Why do you think these rules are posted for visitors? How do you think the rules were established? What do you think of each of the rules listed on the sign? How do each of the rules help humans and gray whales live in harmony? What could happen if someone ignored the rules? How does the sign educate tourists who come to see the whales? How would you inspire tourists to respect the whales and the lagoon during their visit? Salt of the Earth: Mystery Photo Identified, Link to Lesson Salt! Laguna Ojo de Liebre Last time we showed this mystery photo (right) from one end of the whale?s migration trail. But which end? Nope, it?s not the ice-and-snow end. The photo shows SALT! And such salt is everywhere in the Mexican lagoons. The lagoons? extra-salty water is a help to the babies, as it helps them float better. But the salt is also important to the humans who live in the area, and perhaps even to you! Warm and salty, the lagoons of Baja California Mexico are not just ideal nurseries for gray whale babies. These lagoons also offer just-right conditions for producing solar-evaporated salt. They are apart from the sea, they receive very little rainfall and almost no freshwater runoff, and the winds are brisk and persistent. Laguna Ojo de Liebre's 75,000 acres of evaporating salt ponds are home to the world's largest solar saltworks. Who makes the salt, and how? What is the salt used for? Does any of this salt end up in your salt shakers or on your icy streets in winter? Take the photo tour, and then try making your own mini salt-beds with our directions! Salt of the Earth Gray Whale Adaptations From Head to Tail: Challenge Questions #7, #8 All this salt reminds us of our a study of gray whale adaptations. (An adaptation is a physical or behavioral feature that evolved in response to an organism's environment, due to pressures for survival.) After thinking about how salty the ocean water is, you may wonder the same question that Morris wrote to us: He asked, "Why can whales live by drinking salt water and humans cannot?" Good question! How can a whale do deep dives without getting the bends? How can it have its huge mouth open in frigid water hours every day and not get hypothermia? How can this mammal stay underwater for up to 25 minutes without taking a breath? What makes it possible for a whale to attain a size more enormous than any land mammals? Find the answers to all these questions and more here: Gray Whale Adaptations: The Body By now you are aware that whales and humans are mammals, yet gray whales have some essential adaptations that humans lack. Two adaptations enable them to face food shortages and to eat huge quantities. What are these adaptations? After reading about gray whale adaptations of the head (last time) and body (this time), you?ll be able to answer these questions. But keep thinking. When another species has an adaptation that humans lack, there must be reasons. For example, the food items that gray whales eat are incredibly tiny, but grays are very efficient feeders. Their metabolism is very low so they make efficient use of food energy, burning far fewer calories per day per pound of body weight than humans do. In what ways is this helpful to whales? If this adaptation is so useful for whales, why aren't humans adapted to be more efficient feeders? Challenge Question #7: "How is slow metabolism a useful adaptation to whales? Why do you think a human?s metabolism is so different from a whale?s?" Challenge Question #8: "Why can whales live by drinking salt water and humans cannot?" (To respond to these questions, please follow the instructions below.) The Average: Discussion of Challenge Question #3 "What?s the AVERAGE number of gray whales seen per day by the ACS census in the week of Feb. 10-17? These are the actual numbers for each of those days: 13, 7, 21, 16, 8, 17, 26." We heard the correct answer of 15.43 whales from students at Iselin Middle School; Hamilton Avenue School in Greenwich, CT; Challenger Middle School in San Diego. Vanessa, Melissa, Gary, Matthew, and Tasneem from Iselin Middle School Grade 7A pointed out, "Since you cannot have .43 whales, some days there were more than 15 and some days less." Thanks, thinkers! Good Nurseries: Discussion of Challenge Question #4 Last time we asked, "What makes the lagoons of Baja such good nurseries for newborn whales? Give two or more reasons." "The Lagoons of Baja help the baby gray whale conserve body heat because the waters are warm and the babies are born blubberless," wrote Wesley, Zirft, Trent, and Jared (Iselin Middle School/Grade 7A). Sasha said the lagoons are safe from predatory animals such as killer whales, providing safety for the newborn whales. Mary at Hamilton Ave. School (Greenwich, CT.) pointed out that the shallower water keeps the babies safe from strong currents. From Challenger Middle School (San Diego) Andrea reminds us that the saltier water helps calves stay buoyant and also that the Mexican government protects whales by having rules and limiting the number of boats that can be on the lagoons. Thanks, students. You read carefully! One, Two, Three, Breathe: Discussion of Challenge Question #5 There's always a WHY behind WHAT you see! Last time you read about the wondrous features of a whale?s head. Then we asked: "What adaptation enables a surfaced gray whale to take a breath even when it has a mouthful of water?" "The adaptation is the blowhole," said Vanessa, Melissa, Matt and Tassneem from Iselin (NJ) Middle School/Grade 7A. "This enables the whale to be able to breathe faster and to breathe with water in its mouth." These students also said the location of the blowholes on top of the head makes it easier "because whales don?t have to lift their heavy heads out of the water to breathe." Remember that the blowholes are connected directly to the lungs, and not connected to the mouth. Congratulations to these students, who read not only the lines but between the lines. And thanks to all who sent their answers! What?s This? Looking Ahead Photo Keith Jones Do you know what this photo shows? An adult gray whale can carry up to a ton of these. Wouldn?t that be a drag? Next time we?ll tell you more about it. See you then!   See Daily Whale Numbers on the Web You can keep tabs on the daily gray whale census counts at Point Vicente by visiting the ACS Web site, where the numbers are posted each day: (Great for graphing!) How many northbound whales were seen today? Are whales still going south? What?s your prediction for the peak week in the northward migration? You?ll see it coming if you check the ACS Web site each day. American Cetacean Society--Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project How to Respond to Today's Challenge Questions: IMPORTANT: Answer only ONE question in each e-mail message. 1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-gwhale@learner.org 2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #6 (OR #7 OR #8) 3. In the body of EACH message, give your answer to ONE of the questions above. The Next Gray Whale Migration Update Will Be Posted on March 19, 2003. Copyright 2003 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form