Recent Sightings
-
TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2025
Cloudy conditions today and for part of the time, the ocean, sky, and blows were all the same color. Thankfully, the sun re-emerged and visibility improved.
This morning I spotted a blow very close to shore at the Gualala Point Regional Park beach. We quickly notified Shari Goforth-Eby who was able to photograph this foraging whale. She discovered this whale was in fact Panther, the same two year old whale seen there on Thursday, January 23rd with 11 scars and a deep laceration most likely caused by a boat propeller. Interesting that this young whale is still foraging in the same area. We will continue to look for and monitor his presence and behaviors.
Observations from the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula:
* 9 southbound gray whales – one group of three, two groups of two, and two singles
TOTAL GRAY WHALES SEEN TO DATE = 341 southbound
* 41 harbor seals
* 1 white-tailed kite
* 2 great blue herons
* 2 American kestrels
* 1 Ferruginous hawk
* 1 Northern harrier
* 3 black oystercatchers -
MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2025
Excellent conditions today with great visibility and distinction between the sky and the ocean.
Observations from the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula:
* 15 southbound gray whales – one group of four, one group of three, two groups of two, four singles
Total whales seen to date = 332 southbound
* 39 harbor seals
* 1 great blue heron
* 2 black oystercatchers
* 2 American kestrels -
SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2025
While hiking along the bluff trial at the Sea Ranch, we spotted one gray whale foraging north of Walk On Beach. The whale swam north and south and took long foraging dives about 200 years off shore. Below please see a video of this whale taken by Janet McElroy.
Shari Goforth-Eby was the Point Arena Lighthouse and reported seeing 5 southbound grays – two duos and one single.
Later in the day, we spotted 8 southbound grays – 3 duos and 2 singles at the Lighthouse.
Total grays seen today = 13 southbound and 1 forager
TOTAL WHALES SEEN TO DATE: 317 southbound
* 73 harbor seals
* 1 great blue heron
* 3 American kestrels
-
SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 2025
Observations from Saunders Reef:
* 4 southbound gray whales, one group of two and two singles
GRAY WHALES SEEN TO DATE = 304 southbound
Today, we had the good fortune to watch and learn from Orca Network’s Way of Whales conference.
-
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2025
Shari Goforth received the following update on the gray whale with scars she photographed yesterday at Gualala Point Regional Park Beach:
Mark Sawyer: There’s a match to a 2023 calf, known as “Panther”. The images I matched to, and the additional info, comes from the GEMM Lab at OSU. They saw Panther in October, with no vessel strike scarring. Panther’s mother is a PCFG individual. Very, very sad, but hopefully having a 3-month window in which the injury took place will lend some additional insight into how injuries heal over time.Lisa Hildebrand: Just tuning in here from the GEMM Lab. The CRC ID for this individual is 2603. Super sad to see it with this massive scar as it is still a very young whale. Calf in 2023 as Mark mentioned. From the photo caption it sounds like it was feeding and behaving normally so hopefully it makes it despite the traumatic wound! Thanks to everyone for sharing and passing on these details. Super interesting!At the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula we had limited visibility today due to an offshore fog and haziness and some wind.
We observed:* 14 southbound gray whales – two pairs of two and 10 singles, one of the single whales breached twice
GRAY WHALES SEEN TO DATE = 300 southbound
* 76 harbor seals
* 3 black oystercatchers
* 1 Ferruginous hawk
* 3 American kestrels