EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Close Encounter of the Cetacean Kind

Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus), Family Eschrichtiidae
Bodega Head, California

Explanation:   There be whales here!  This kayaker is getting the show of his life amidst a pod of California gray whales on the Pacific Ocean side of Bodega Head in northern California.  (Look closely; there are actually two whales surfacing here!)

Most gray whales along North America migrate north during February to July, from their winter range of lagoons along Baja California, to their summer range in the Arctic and subarctic waters of the Chukchi and Bering Seas.  However, these individuals were part of a small population that summers along the northern California coast. 

Gray whales are typically bottom feeders, although they also feed pelagically (in the open ocean water column), as this pod was likely doing.  

Gray whales were harvested heavily over the centuries.  The North Atlantic population became extinct from whaling by the 18th century, and the California population was harvested down to a thousand or less by the early 20th century but has since recovered in part under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in the U.S. and as people discovered the values of conservation.   

And, harpoons aside, there is nothing to compare with a personal close encounter of the cetacean kind.