The sighting Tuesday of a gray whale famously known as “Scarback” has helped signal the beginning of the 2019-20 southbound migration off Southern California.
The adult female whale, believed to have been disfigured in the 1980s by a ship strike or an exploding harpoon, was spotted Tuesday morning off Manhattan Beach, traveling with a juvenile companion.
Both whales were later spotted by volunteers with the ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project, which operates from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
“We watched two southbound GRAY WHALES today – including the very famous adult female “SCARBACK” from the Pacific Coast Feeding Group, who is seen every summer feeding off of Depoe Bay, Oregon!” Alisa Schulman-Janiger, the project’s director, exclaimed on Facebook. “We watched them as they hugged the kelp line for 45 minutes.”
The sighting increased to three the number of gray whales tallied this season by project volunteers, in what appears to be a late migration of gray whales from northern feeding waters to Mexican nursing and breeding areas.
Scarback is among an estimated 232 gray whales within the Pacific Coast Feeding Group, according to the Cascadia Research Collective. These whales forage during the summer between Northern California and British Columbia, while the vast majority of gray whales feed off Alaska.
Scarback was first documented in 1979, before sustaining her injury, and has had multiple calves. Her primary feeding area is off Depoe Bay, where most sightings have occurred. (The still-open wound, covered in orange whale lice, is most clearly visible from her right side.)
She has been observed several times off Southern California and last season she was spotted traveling southbound in December, and northbound in January, which is extremely early for whales to be migrating back to foraging areas.
However, last season was unusual in that more than 200 gray whales died and became stranded during the migration. Many were emaciated and did not appear to have enough fat reserves to make it back to feeding areas. (Gray whales, as a rule, do not feed during the migration period.)
NOAA declared the elevated number of strandings an “Unusual Morality Event” and is still studying precise causes of death. (The overall gray population was estimated to number just under 27,000 animals in 2016.)
It remains unclear whether the whales currently migrating south consumed enough prey to sustain their marathon round-trip journey, but Scarback and her young companion looked to be in good shape.
“Scarback was very large and robust,” Schulman-Janiger said. “She looked very healthy. So wonderful to see such a big, healthy-looking gray whale.”
–Top images showing Scarback off Southern California on Tuesday are courtesy of Alisa Schulman-Janiger. Bottom image, showing the whale’s still-open wound, is courtesy of Carrie Newall/Whale Research EcoExcursions
