“We might peer into the future at the generations yet unborn,

And ask ourselves if we're really trustworthy custodians of their heritage.

Do we have the right to tell them that they can never see a whale?”

David R. Brower

The gentle giants of the Pacific are on the move

Their annual Spring migration has recently begun

Having personally gone to the coast to watch them

I can tell you that Giant Watching can be tons of fun

These are extremely fascinating creatures of the sea

Many whale watchers report them to be very friendly

Since they often allow us to touch and observe them

An astounding fact that has always filled me with glee

They spend the winter months in sunny Mexico

Where the females give birth and nurture their young

Each Spring they soon begin their long journey to Alaska

As they travel up the coast their whale songs so joyously sung

Theirs is one of the longest mammal migrations

Still existing on our ancient Mother Earth today

These gentle giants travel over 12,000 miles each year

Following nature’s very simple edict to live love and play

Female gray whales can be 45 feet long

And weigh as much as 70,000 pounds

New born calves weigh in at two tons

One of the largest mammal babies around

These very friendly Gentle Gray Whale Giants

Were almost hunted to complete extinction twice

In 1946 efforts were finally taken to protect them

And the fact they are still with us I find quite nice

©2006, Ed Kostro

The only member of the family Eschrichtiidae, the gray whale is a baleen whale and a bottom feeder. Its back and sides are usually covered with both barnacles and sea lice.  And these Gentle Giants migrate along the North American Pacific Coast every year - journeying between icy arctic seas and warm tropical lagoons.

Frequently visible from shore on these annual migrations, gray whales provide a unique opportunity for both land and boat observation, and commercial whale watching has now become a major industry along their ancient migration routes.  And their observers sometimes even encounter the marvelous phenomenon of the ‘friendlies’ - gray whales that actually approach small boats of admirers and allow themselves to be touched by we humans.

The first time these gentle giants almost became extinct was in the 1850s.  That's when whalers discovered their breeding lagoons down in Mexico; then again at the turn of the 20th century. In 1946, with their numbers severely dwindling, international laws were finally passed to protect them.

These Gray Whales make an extraordinarily long migration from the Arctic ocean to the Baja peninsula off Mexico, and back again each year.  They travel about 12,500 miles a year, always staying very near the coastline on their wondrous journeys.

They feed in the cold arctic waters, and mate and calve in the warm protected tropical lagoons off Baja, Mexico.

At one time, there were three gray whale populations on Earth: a north Atlantic population, now extinct, the tragic victims of over-hunting; a Korean or western north Pacific stock that is now extremely depleted, also from over-hunting; and the eastern north Pacific population described above - the largest surviving population of these very intriguing and very gentle Giants of the Sea.

And I, for one, truly hope they remain with us for a very long time to come.