Monday, April 2, 2012

Grey Whales

We went on a Grey Whale (Eschrichtius robustus)Tour on Saturday! We toured with Island Adventures out of Everett Harbor. Spring is the best time for grey whale sightings around here because they are migrating North to eat for the summer and many of the males stop in Puget Sound to eat Ghost Shrimp.

We saw 3 whales, but watched them for about 30 minutes each. One, Number 723, was easy to identify by its two large, white scars on its back. When the whales surface for air between bites of food, you can see their formidable dorsal ridge and a stream of air and water as they blow through their spout. Grey whales are not the breaching(jumping)/singing type - those are humpback whales and their migration can be seen in the Fall. We definitely want to go on that tour.

We went with 3 other families from our previous ward.
After the grey whale dorsal ridge lost our attention, we watched this frog.

1 comment:

amy said...

Elliott is the cutest thing alive, as usual.

Ryan used to watch the humpback migration when he lived in humboldt. Let's figure out the best time and meet up there for hiking and whale-spotting! We need to continue working on our sons' forced friendship ;)