Did I ever tell you about that time I saw a WHALE?!

Me and my friend departed Depoe Bay (~12 mi north of Newport, OR) one fateful morning in search of whales. This is the smallest harbor (of the world?) the U.S. for sure. We saw some harbor seals in Whale Cove (no whales though):

Look at that face :) That looks like Sophie!

Anyways, here is a really nice shot of a tail! When you see them dive like this, when they orient their body vertically in the water, this means they are starting a very deep dive so don't expect it to come up for a while!
All the whales we ended up seeing this day were gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus. It was first described by Lilljeborg in 1861 from a Swedish fossil. The funny looking genus name "Eschrichtius" is name in honor of a colleague, zoologist Daniel Eschricht, of the author. The Atlantic population became extinct in the 18th century, most likely due to whaling but no one can say for certain... There were reports (mid-late 1600s) up and down the east coast of the US even (NY to FL) of whales having similar description to gray whales. Curious indeed. Their gray and white coloration sure does make them distinct.
And just last year there were sightings of a gray whale off the coast of Israel! This might be more common if the Arctic ice cap continues to melt at this current rate...
So what we have today are Pacific populations! Namely, the ones I saw were a part of the larger eastern Pacific group, they stay up and down the west coast of the US and Canada. There are about 20,000+ of them.
A really small separate population lives off the coast of Korea. It seems no one knows too much about this group but they are probably in trouble and there is very little if any mixing between the too groups...

We got pretty close to some individuals! Much closer than I thought we were going to get. To bad didn't have a closer shot though. Maybe we could see some barnacles!

And my favorite shot because you can see its face:
There was one whale (I think this one) that stayed on the surface of the water for a good while. Everyone was able to get good shots! So you see how white the head is? The whale is actually a nice dark slate color with some natural blotches but gray whales are also one of the most parasitized cetaceans out there! They not only serve as a free ride for barnacles and whale lice but many many other ectoparasites (parasites that live on the surface of the skin). These parasites drop off when they migrate up north and the scarring left behind creates the mottled white patterns we see. Encounters with predators like sharks and orcas can also result in white marks. Scientists can used these distinct markings to ID individuals.
Anyways wow I really got into Googling gray whales didn't I?


Lingcod! I have 1/2 of the fillet in my freezer! The deckhand whipped out his fishing pole every time we stopped to see whales. We ended up seeing 5! Not a bad day at all :)