The swell might have been fading, but for surfers at a popular Southern California beach on Sunday, the presence of a whale more than made up for any lack of waves.
The first video accompanying this post, captured by Daina Buchner at Black’s Beach in San Diego County, shows a juvenile gray whale lolling just yards from the shore, at times surfacing in the lineup as surfers paddled for waves.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Q–29bM-Y]
“As for the surfers’ reactions, most of them looked curious and in disbelief,” Buchner told For The Win Outdoors. “Mostly they were trying to stay out of the whale’s way, but sometimes the whale was obscured by the water and that’s when the surfers were surfing next to it.”
At 53 seconds, a wave breaks over the whale, with surfers riding the wave on either side of the whale. The whale does not seem bothered by the wave or the presence of surfers.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV6RR7VnSoM]
About 25,000 gray whales are migrating down the coast, from feeding areas off Alaska to nursing and breeding areas off Mexico.
Juvenile whales, not in a great hurry, sometimes appear to be more curious and adventurous, and might linger in one spot for hours.
Trystan Snodgrass, who captured the drone footage in the second video accompanying this post, was first to locate the gray whale at Black’s Beach.
His morning footage shows the whale in remarkably clear water south of the surfing area, in almost nonexistent surf. The whale, measuring 20-plus feet, seems to be lounging in a turquoise sea of tranquility.
“Apparently they’re known to take a breather once they reach Southern California and the waters warm up,” Snodgrass said. “It was there for at least a few hours on Sunday, and the next morning it was spotted by a friend and I saw it finally leaving the area around noon on Monday.”
Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a Southern California-based whale researcher, told For The Win Outdoors that juvenile gray whales are more likely to travel closer to shore.
The whale in the footage, she said, might have been relaxing and enjoying the turbulence against its body. But it might also have been searching for food, opportunistically, in the sediment.
“This whale quite possibly swam all the way from Alaska, traveling by itself,” Schulman-Janiger said. “That’s not unusual, so maybe it just stopped to rest and enjoy some stimulation in the waves and mud, to roll in the sand and remove parasites, and possibly forage.”
Gray whale sightings are starting to increase off Southern California. The peak period, according to Schulman-Janiger, is often around the third week of January.
–Follow Daina Buchner and Trystan Snodgrass on Instagram