Gray Whales On The Move

Our good friend Randall Finley was on board another SFBay Whale Watching trip this month, and is again generous in letting us showcase his terrific photos of Gray Whales, California and Steller Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, and thousands of Common Murres roosting on the Farallon Islands.


It's hard to imagine that Pacific ocean dwelling Gray Whales were nearly hunted to extinction. Yet that is exactly what happened to Atlantic ocean Grays. Whalers found Grays to be easy targets since they generally fed in shallow coastal waters.


Anecdotally, it was said that Grays learned to swim further from shore as a defense against predation from whalers. Since their comeback, it has been observed that Grays gradually began to feed closer to shore as in earlier times.


Randy's panorama of the Farallones, wearing their spring green colors.


Steller Sea Lions (or "Northern Sea Lions") are the big boys here - males can grow to 2,400 pounds! California Sea Lions top off at a dainty 860 pounds.


Harbor Seals, generally shy, will slip off the rocks into the water if approached.


Common Murres, whose eggs, gathered to feed throngs of hungry gold rush era miners, were the object of violent wars for the rights to gather and sell eggs from Farallon Island nests.


"Eggers" would climb up the steep Farallon cliffs and fill their shirts with gathered Murre eggs, then descend the slippery rock inclines while fending off poaching-minded gulls.


Upwards of a quarter of a million sea birds call the Farallones their seasonal breeding site. We at SFBay Whale Watching learned early on that our passengers were as interested in bird watching as in whale watching.



Photos by Randall Finley. Text by Kathleen Jacques.