The 2011-2012 Gray Whale migration in the Eastern Pacific is beginning with more whale sightings than in any of my previous 5 winters here.
I see their spouts and occasional breaches during my daily hikes in my Punta Banda neighborhood. Though I have not done a tour of the whale lagoons of Baja, 300 miles south of me, it is on the list of many future adventures.
The evolution of marine mammals began 60 million years ago, when the first land mammals took to the water in search of food and a safer habitat. They have slowly evolved to adapt perfectly to their aquatic lifestyle, exchanging their fur for an insulating layer of blubber. The forelegs transformed to pectoral flippers and is used for balance and steerage. The hind limbs shrank to only a small remnant bone fragment and was replaced by powerful tail flukes that propel them easily through the water. The mouth has enlarged to be able to take in hundreds of pounds of food required to sustain them and teeth were replaced by baleen plates which efficiently strain out sand and mud. Their nostrils receded to the top of the head to facilitate breathing.
For centuries, humans and whales have happily coexisted on this planet, the indigenous peoples often relying on beached whales for food. The Ma-ac (gray whale) was greatly revered and respected. Hunting from dugout canoes was done only with great ceremony. Hunting parties prayed and fasted in preparation and only the chief was permitted to throw the first harpoon. The whole whale was utilized and divided among the community with great thanks offered to the creator. One whale would feed whole villages so the takes were minimal, unlike modern commercial whaling fleets that have annihilated entire populations in a very short period of time in their relentless quest for valuable oil, meat, blubber and bone.
In 1850, there were about 25,000 gray whales on the Eastern Pacific coast, until the New England whaler Charles Scammon discovered the calving lagoons in Baja California, where a full scale slaughter of the animals was easily carried out. By 1939, with only a few animals surviving, the grays were offered partial protection by the International Whaling Commission and finally granted full protection in 1946.
