RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (KNX) — After a nearly two-year hiatus, expert whale watchers are taking an official count of the massive aquatic mammals traveling along the Pacific Coast this week.
The ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior initiative occurs annually from December to May. Their efforts, however, paused in March 2020 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The whale census allows Alisa Schulman-Janiger, the project’s director, and other volunteers to calculate the number of whales migrating 5,000 miles from Alaska to Baja California. But it also allows researchers to determine trends and assess the animals’ overall health.
“We should know in a couple of months how the gray whales are doing,” Schulman-Janiger explained to the O.C. Register. “Do they look skinny? Are there fewer calves? We just don’t know yet because we haven’t started the project for this season.”
Grey whales spend time in cold, polar waters for feeding and travel to warmer subtropical waters for mating.
Volunteers joined Alison Schulman-Janiger at the primary census station, Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, Wednesday morning. It was the first time in more than 20 months since they have been able to bring their binoculars and check on their friends in the ocean.
The yearly census count runs from December through May 15, according to the American Cetacean Society, tracking the gray whales’ migration from the Bering Seas to Baja California.
Because the pandemic resulted in a huge gap in data, Schulman-Janiger said it’s going to take some time to figure out how the gray whales are doing.
“If they could find food, that would be terrific,” she told the newspaper. “And then just come down the coast and look nice and plump. And hopefully, we’ll see more calves this year.”
