Get a lagoon!
Passengers aboard a Southern California
whale-watching boat on Sunday enjoyed a rare sighting: that of two gray
whales courting and possibly mating while they migrated past the the Dana Point region.
About 21,000
gray whales migrate about 6,000 miles annually from Arctic feeding
grounds to Baja California lagoons, and the vast majority of
breeding-age whales wait until they reach those lagoons to cavort and
begin the process of making babies.
(Note: A version of this post also appears on the GrindTv.com Outdoor blog.)
But sometimes, apparently, the wait is just too long. Those aboard Capt. Dave's Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari's
catamaran were witness to quite a show: one that included courtship and
lots of rubbing together, some tail-thrashing and even an odd-looking spyhop.
"You don't normally see the mating taking
place up here. It usually happens down in the lagoons in Mexico where
they breed," Capt. Tom Southern tells his passengers. "But you are
actually seeing it happening right here... We have two gray whales that
really like each other here."
As for the bottlenose dolphin that appears next to the whales in the footage, it needs to learn some manners.
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