Mating Season (for Gray Whales, that is)

Well, that got your attention. The Audubon Guide to Marine Mammals of the World states that the California stock of Gray Whales migrates from its summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea to its winter mating and calving areas off the coast of Baja California between November and March. So this is prime time to catch sight of the Grays on their amorous way south.


Gray Whales are notoriously curious - the old whalers invented the term “spyhopping” to describe the whales' practice of poking their heads out of the water for a look around. Spyhopping is a funny thing to observe because it seems so deliberate, like a “periscope up” command, not the joyous abandon of a full breach (leap).


I’ve heard lots of anecdotes especially about the curiosity that baby Gray Whales have shown regarding boaters - swimming alongside whale watching boats, allowing themselves to be petted even. It’s hard to imagine that whalers actually referred to Grays as “devil fish” because of their ferocity (once again, according to Audubon). (I wish I had a photo of one of those curious baby Grays but I don't so I offer you a photo Ed took of some cute and very curious Harbor Seals hauled out near Point Bonita Light House that we saw on the way to the Grays.)



Female Gray Whales will have a baby every 2 to 3 years, carrying the fetus for 12 to 13 months. Once the Grays get to Baja competitive groups of males will form, all seeking the attention of a single female. A similar phenomenon is described regarding the mating of Humpback Whales in the just released February, 2008 issue of Smithsonian Magazine (www.smithsonian.com).


It might be winter, but the whales are thinking spring break, so come aboard an SFBay Whale Watching trip and wish a Gray Whale safe passage to Baja (and come see the Farallon Islands in winter - they are especially beautiful).

Photos by Ed Estes and Suphanni Jacques. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

The Golden Gate Bridge - 70 mph Winds: Built to Take It

The winds hit 70 miles per hour across the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday, January 4, 2008. Even so, Golden Gate Transit reminded people on its website that the Bridge has only been closed three times in 70 years due to high winds. Still, buses and trucks were banned for a period. Hard to imagine, but a blown over rig was feared to be a real possibility.

Needless to say, SFBay Whale Watching sat out the storm. Migrating Gray Whales, resident Harbor Seals, California Sea Lions, and other marine mammals are far better suited to riding wild storm swells than we are. But the weather report is improving - I’m counting on it, I’ll be on board next weekend.

When the storm abates and we head out to the whales in a few days, our boat will pass under the Golden Gate Bridge - and once again I’ll marvel at it’s beauty and resilience. The bridge’s statistics are fairly well known: completed in 1937, 4,200 feet long, 746 foot north and south towers, 260 feet between the roadbed and the water, designed to sway 27 feet from east to west in a high wind or earthquake.

Most of our passengers will photograph the bridge as we pass under it at the start and the end of our trip. Locals treat it like a revered member of the family - people from all over the world seem thrilled to see it up close after so many movie glimpses. But when I next pass underneath our great bridge, I will, as always, reflect on the brave men who built it. Men who built it to withstand 70 mile per hour winds.

Men like construction worker Pete Williamson who was so desperate for a job to feed his family during the depression that he worked in the middle of the evolving span, “walking along those girders with nothing to hold on to, balancing myself on 8-inch I-beams with only net and water underneath. I learned quick that when the wind was blowing, which was all the time out there, you had to carry lumber on the side away from it. If you didn’t, it could blow you right into the drink.”

Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.