California Gray Whales

A migrating gray whale has been in the harbor here for days, and officials don't know why it hasn't moved on. The 15-foot whale showed up Monday at the harbor entrance and has been swimming 100 to 500 yards offshore. "It's unusual for one to just stay there. They go from Baja to Alaska at this time of year," Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol Officer Monica Broumand said. "We don't know why he's hanging out. He doesn't seem to be trapped," Broumand said. "There are no apparent injuries."

A female gray whale labored up the coast, the bony ridge of a shoulder blade protruding from what should be the smooth, plump roundness of healthy blubber. "That female looks a little skinny," said federal biologist Wayne Perryman, peering through his binoculars. "You can see her scapula sticking out. Yeah, she's a skinny girl."

Leaders of the Makah Indian tribe expressed regret to federal officials and members of Congress on Wednesday for the unauthorized killing of a gray whale off the coast of Washington state. At separate meetings with Washington's two senators and top leaders of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tribal leaders reiterated their condemnation of the killing, which has drawn international attention to the tribe's efforts to revive its traditional whale hunting.

A federal grand jury has charged five American Indians with misdemeanor counts in the killing of a protected gray whale without a permit last month, the government said Thursday. The indictment charges the men, all members of the Makah tribe, with conspiracy, unlawful taking of a marine mammal and unauthorized whaling, all punishable by up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine.

\o7Thar she blows!\f7 Finally. Whale-watching season officially began, as it always does, on the day after Christmas. But many of the leviathans chose to spend the holiday season at home, in and around the Bering Sea, feasting on amphipods. Ice was slow to form over the region, delaying the 6,000-mile migration to Baja California, but the journey is underway and sightings locally are picking up. And not surprisingly, given the late start, some of the mother whales are traveling with calves.

A gray whale smashed into a 27-foot boat, damaging the vessel and injuring one person, the boat's owner said. The Bayliner was cruising off Leadbetter Beach shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday when the whale surfaced under the right bow and belly-flopped onto the boat, crushing the cabin, said owner Jerry Gormley.

Los Angeles-area whale watchers might want to mark the following dates on their 2007 calendars: January 15 and 18, then March 13 and 20. Those dates were when sightings of southbound and northbound gray whales peaked during the 2005-06 migration period, according to the L.A. Chapter of the American Cetacean Society. Also noted this week in the ACS/L.A.'

On a chilly Sunday morning, with a fierce northwesterly wind raking broad white streaks across the ocean, the only clear sign of animal life is in the sky. Two peregrine falcons beat their way headlong into the wind, briefly, before veering to their right and riding it swiftly out of sight. A red-tail hawk emerges from beneath the cliff like a harrier jet, and holds position for a moment before also turning and dashing away.

Blanca Wilterdink was on her regular walk Friday along the Marina del Rey channel when a stranger stopped and asked if she had heard about the whale. "A what? A whale?" Wilterdink asked. "I thought, 'This lady must be mistaken.' " She looked to the water and called her husband, who raced over on his bike with a pair of binoculars. Sure enough, there was a 20-foot-long gray whale swimming playfully around the Marina del Rey breakwater. "It was such a beauty," she said.

For a good time, follow the whales. The big boys of Planet Ocean vacation in some of the world's finest locations: the warm lagoons and bays of Hawaii and Mexico in winter, the clear waters of Canada and Alaska in summer. In some ways, they're like the seriously wealthy, tracking the sun to the world's playgrounds. The phenomenon hasn't escaped the travel industry, which thrives when the humpback, gray and blue whales come to town.