The Grays are Back

February 27, 2019

Witness the migration

Gray whales make one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling about 10,000 miles round-trip. During the spring migration they travel from their winter home in Baja California, Mexico to their summer home north of Alaska in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. It is during this northbound migration that mothers with calves travel close to shore, making the spring migration a particularly good time for whale watching.

With all of its spectacular vista points, the Mendocino Coast is a great place to witness the Pacific gray whale migration. Annual whale festival events take place up and down the coast for the first three weekends in March, so there will be no shortage of opportunities to catch a glimpse of their distinctive spouts and possibly a fluke or two. Mendocino Land Trust will be joining in the festivities with a guided whale watching walk.

Did you know? • A whale’s spout is actually an exhalation from their lungs that blows tiny particles of water into the air. • Different species of whales have different shaped spouts. • The spout of a gray whale is low and bushy and sometimes described as heart or v-shaped.