Like the Snow Birds who trek from the cold northern climes of Canada and the U.S. to Baja every year to winter on its warm, abounding beaches,the California gray whales--all 24,000 of them--make an annual 10- to 12,000-mile round trip from their feeding grounds in the Arctic to the protected lagoonsof Baja. Some of the most playful and prolific of all cetaceans, their population has rebounded from a scant 500 in 1947 when they were put on the Endangered Species List, to what's assumed to be their original number.So remarkable has been their recovery, that they were removed from protective status in 1994.

What drove the gray whales to the brink of extinction? Humans, of course....

Whalers discovered Laguna San Ignacio and Laguna Ojos de Liebre (known stateside as Scammon's Lagoon) in the mid-1800s. There was a huge market for whale products world-wide back then.Their blubber was boiled to use as fuel oil. Whalebone and baleen were used for corsets, brushes and the spokes of umbrellas. Even after whale oil was replaced by petroleum and electricity, whale meat was still used as cat food. For nearly 100 years, the gray whales of Baja were slaughtered. The whalers would block off the entrance to the tranquil lagoons where the grays mated, gave birth, nursed and frolicked with their young. Their sanctuaries became killing grounds and the waters of the Baja lagoons turned red with the blood of dying whales. Gray whale moms, like the one we met a while ago, had nasty reputations among the whalers, who called them "DevilFish." These females were fiercely protective of their young. Often times, after her baby had been murdered before her eyes, the mother would charge the whaling boats, injuring and killing their crews.

Here are few more facts about the grays. The females are larger than males, growing to about 50 feet and weighing in at 30 to 35 tons. The males only get to be about 46 feet long and weigh 25 to 20 tons. Toothless, they have filters in their mouths called baleen that sieve food from the water.They blow about three to five times in a row, then they flip their flukes,or tail fins, and dive for three to five minutes. They can stay down up to 15 minutes. And they can dive to about 400 feet, although they prefer shallower water.

The babies are about eighteen feet long when they're born and weigh about a ton. They nurse for eight months off their mothers, whose milk contains --- by the way --- 53 per cent fat. This rich milk helps them build up enough blubber to make the long journey back north to their feeding grounds, a trek they begin at about two months old. Grays become sexually mature somewhere between five and 11 years old. Their mating rituals, which they carry out in the protected waters of the Baja lagoons, are pretty interesting. Think about it.... These massive cetaceans have no appendages to use to hang onto each other. There's no way they could successfully mate without assistance. Because it takes at least three of them to copulate, an adolescent male comes alongside the female and holds her steady while the mature male mates with her. Good training for the future!

For the first 25 or so years that the whales were protected, scientists studied them from afar. In Laguna San Ignacio, the Mexican fishermen didn't dare go near them for fear they'd be mistaken for whalers and their pangas (wooden fishing skiffs) would be smashed to smithereens. Francisco Mayoral, a local fisherman now in his mid-50s, claims that no one who'd ever gotten near a gray whale lived... until he had his first whale encounter back in 1972, that is. Francisco was out in his panga with some other fishermen one day, rowing to catch the outgoing tide. A whale swam up to their boat. Francisco rowed like crazy for shore. Only this gray followed him! He and the other men in the boat fell to their knees, made the sign of the cross and started praying like the dead men they thought they were. When nothing happened, Francisco opened his eyes, only to see the whale's nine-foot head with its huge, unblinking eye staring right straight at him. Then it slipped back into the water and started rubbing itself up against the boat. It did this, apparently, for nearly an hour. Then it swam away.

The locals were dumfounded. They discussed this phenomenal event among themselves, but the lagoon was so isolated that word didn't leak out to the scientific community for a few more years. It was a crew memberfrom a whale watching boat out of San Diego, the Salado, who was the first person to actually touch a gray whale, in 1976.

Over the next five or so years, scientists descended on the area with greater and greater frequency. The playful whales--the ones who loved to be stroked and who put on shows for the humans--began to be called "Friendlies." The word pread and tourists began to show up. Soon the Mexican government began licensing guides to take boatloads of curious visitors out onto the lagoons to see the whales up close and personal.

Are the whales really safe? Are they really "friendly?" If the answers to both of those questions are yes--then how and why did they come to forgive the humans for a century of ruthless slaughter? No one really knows the answer to that question, but tour leader Lynn Mitchell of Baja Discovery Tours, a company with a "safari camp" right on San Ignacio Lagoon, wonders sometimes whether the whales know and recognize her. She recognizes a good many of them and is never-endingly amazed by the friendliness and trust they exhibit toward humans. According to her, things have come around so much that the mothers actually teach their babies to come to the pangas. "The babies love to be petted," she says. "And so many of the older ones love to have their baleen stroked. They all love to play. I've even had my boat picked up and carried on a mama whale's back before. And spun like a toy."

The grays show up in Southern Baja about December or January. The last stragglers take off by late April. Because the Mexican government is very strict about who's allowed near the whales,it's necessary to go on a tour with an authorized guide. There's always a group of government observers who watch all the tourists from shore with their high-powered telescopes to make sure no one hurts the whales or ventures into the off-limits areas of the lagoons.

If you're itching to get close to a gray whale, don't try to do it stateside. It's against the law. You've got to go to Baja. You have options here too—although Baja ecotours can be pricey, running anywhere from $750 to $2,000. You can go the rustic route and spend up to five days at a safari camp at Laguna San Ignacio like the one run by Baja Discovery, or you can sign on with Keith Jones of Baja Jones Adventure Travel and go to Laguna Ojo de Liebre, spending your nights in a hotel in the town of Guerrero Negro. Both tours offer side trips to view local birds, sea lions and other wildlife. Read what Keith has to say about a trip last year:

 “ As we approach the official viewing area we pass by several mother and baby pairs lying quietly on the surface. The spyhopping activity picks up and we see two or three whales peeking our way, then sliding back beneath the water. The boat slows to a crawl. The motor is kicked out of gear and our panga glides ahead slowly. I notice a long shadow below the water and point to it just as the huge gray whale surfaces. She blows a tremendous blast of water up into the sky. The fishy-smelling vapor drenches us. Everyone is standing now and the boat sort of tips to one side. She’s so close we can make out the pinkish barnacles that cling to her back and head. Then, like a big black bubble, her baby pops up next to her. He’s maybe six weeks old. He never stops moving—first over her tail, then under her belly, then back to lay sideways across her back. He stares at us, then slides off her back and approaches the panga. For 30 seconds that seems like an hour, he leans against the side, while each of us has the opportunity to stroke his head.”

If you want to create your own adventure, you can drive down Baja, or take advantage of package tours that include meals, accommodations and van or bus transportation. One thing for sure is that reservations fill up fast, and the time to book is NOW!

© 1999 Ann Hazard. No part of this article may be reprinted without permission.
This story is featured in Ann's newest book, Agave Sunsets.
REPRINTED FROM CEDROS REVIEW MAGAZINE, WINTER 1999 ISSUE. ALSO PRINTED IN THE COAST NEWS, FEBRUARY 24, 2000 and the BAJA TOURIST GUIDE, January 2001 and BAJA TRAVELER MAGAZINE, 2002 issue.

Oh. By the way, Ann did kayak with some gray whales off the tip of Punta Banda a few years back.
 

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