LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Whales (Ecotourism): Gray Whales
built 804 days ago
Blue Whales don’t have fur they have smooth, bluish-gray skin. The skin is covered in oil. This causing them to move swiftly through the water at speeds reaching 30 miles per hour. Blue Whales are, of course, huge with rounded bodies and a powerful tail. Blue Whales, like all whales don’t have arm, they have flippers that look like huge paddles. They use their flippers to change directions in the water.
Source:
Gray Whales reach lengths of 45', are generally gray in color with white mottling, and have many barnacles and whale lice embedded in their skin. They migrate slowly, at about 2-5 miles/hr, and generally blow 3-5 times before fluking up and diving for 2-7 minutes. During this migration they occasionally breach, spyhop, and mate with other Grays. They travel singly or in pods ranging from 2 to 10 whales.
Source:
These Gray Whales travel the farthest of any whale, 5000 miles from their feeding grounds in the high Arctic. Magdelena Bay is home to the thousands of whales from end of January through February. Here you will observe the sights of baby whales at play, or the resounding splash of single males and females in their dramatic display called breaching.
Source:
Your Baja AirVentures whale watching trips begin with one and a half days at the famous Scammons Lagoon on the Pacific Ocean observing California Gray whales on their annual migration. First by boat with a local guide enriching your experience and then by air -- something NO other Baja whale watching tour operator can offer. You will delight in up-close encounters with curious young calves and playful adult whales. Then a short, scenic flight across the peninsula to Las Animas Wilderness Retreat on the Sea of Cortez.
Source:
You’ll learn that gray whales are baleen whales. This means when feeding for small crustaceans on the ocean floor, the whales roll on their sides and scoop up water and sediments. They then force the water and sediments out through the fringed baleen plates that hang from either side of their upper jaw where teeth would otherwise be. You’ll learn that gray whales have double spouts just like all baleen whales. That the blow is not a fountain of water, but of mist that condenses immediately as warm moist air is exhaled under high pressure from their lungs. And that gray whales have a rhythmic breathing pattern during migration—three to five short, shallow dives of 15 to 30 seconds each followed by a long, deep dive of three to six minutes.
Source:
In the spring each year a large number of gray whales travel up the Oregon coast to Alaska to their feeding grounds. In the fall they travel south. They travel so close to the beach you can go out any day of the week and see them. The state has volunteers all along the coast helping people view the whales. They think that about 17,000 whales travel each year. Last year 1,471 whales were spotted in daylight going north from the beach over 3 weeks.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Gray Whales