Welcome to Shari's Whales Tales. After 25 years of studying whales,  I have seen and experienced things most people only dream about. Over the years I have enjoyed sharing my  stories about my time spent among whales and some incredible tales of humans with whales. Everyone always enjoyed my lively and sometimes hard to believe stories and suggested I put them in book form which I am doing. Many of these stories I would find hard to believe if I hadn't been there myself! For this site, I have started at the beginning...where gray whales are born and raised and describe the daily life of the grays. I write about what I observed over 15 years in the calving lagoons of baja...much of which I have never seen documented anywhere else. I hope you enjoy peeking into the lives of these mysterious creatures.  Feel free to email me with any comments or questions.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

     I began studying whales on Vancouver Island in 1980. After having my life saved by two fin whales in Mexico(another story!) I realized there was much more to these gentle giants than meets the eye so I dedicated my life to finding out why whales do what they do. I began my research by reading everything I could find on whales and hanging around marine biologists and pummeling them with questions. I learned there was alot of biological information but very little known about their common behavior so I decided to find out for myself.  I found out about a resident group of gray whales nearby so I set out on my tiny inflatable raft to get to know the whales in my neighbourhood.
      Luckily there were several gray whale feeding grounds where I lived in Tofino B.C., Canada where I could observe the whales going about their daily routines of feeding, napping and playing. I spent thousands of hours on the water amongst my whale friends and have learned first hand about their social activities and behaviors. Soon, word got out about my daily whale sojourns and people started to come down to the dock and ask me if they could tag along. Some offered to pay the gas and bring the beer so I thought, hey why not, it was nice to have some company out there. As more and more folks showed up who wanted to see whales, I got the idea that I could fund my research by taking people out with me and thus founded the first zodiac whale observation tours on the west coast of Canada. I was pleased to pioneer the concept of providing informative narratives to teach her passengers how to appreciate whales in a new light.
      I found I missed my whale friends in the winters and so I decided to migrate with them down to baja mexico where I set up camp in the calving lagoon Ojo de Liebre (Scammons Lagoon) to observe and record calf development from the day they are born until they leave on their grueling northern migration. I was proud to participate in developing the regulations to protect the whales in the lagoons,the census taking, photo identification and trained the guides so that they could successfully approach whales respectfully. It was there where my daughter Sirena was conceived and raised on the shores of the lovely lagoon with the sound of thousands of breathing whales in the background. I have always felt it was my duty and pleasure to share my knowledge and stories with other whale enthusiasts  and I hope you will enjoy this educational and fun whale information section.

BIRTH OF A DESERT WHALE
  Gray whales undertake the longest migration of any marine mammal (16,000 km round trip) in order to give birth to their calves in the warm, protected lagoons of baja california sur. The birthing takes place a few short days after they arrive and often attended by another whale...midwife perhaps?
This picture was taken on January 3rd when 2 large whales (one very pregnant) were checking out Sirena and Pelo Bello. They hung around for a long time taking turns getting their noses rubbed.
  When baby Gray whales are born tail first, they float up to the surface of the salty baja lagoons and if they don't take their first breath immediately, the mother will gently smack the newborn with her tail or flippers to get it breathing. The calves are born pinkish gray and their skin darkens when exposed to the water and air. They have the cutest dimples on their short snub noses with hairs growing out of them and are the size of a small car, weighing in at about a ton when they are born.
 They nurse almost constantly the first week gaining up to sixty pounds a day on their mother's rich milk which is about 53% fat (human milk is 2%). To make it easier for the calf to nurse, mom will roll over on her side to expose her mammary slit that the calf nuzzles up to and catches the milk that is shot out in a stream. this picture shows the mother on her side with her pectoral fin in the air for balance and you can make out the baby's tail near her abdomen where the mammary slits are located.
They continue to nurse for 6-8 months and grow 10' in the first 3 months while the mother loses a third of her body weight while nursing. The calf gains weight rapidly so that it has a layer of blubber built up to keep warm in the cold northern feeding grounds.
In their first month, the babies tire easily and often climb on their mother's back to catch a free ride like in this picture....or they rest their chin or flukes across her back to rest.

SWIMMING PRACTISE
When the calves are more than a month old they begin learning how to be a whale...it's funny to see them clumsily trying to imitate their mothers spy hopping and breaching. The baby whale begins to take on a personality...some are shy and others are real brats escaping from mom when she's sleeping. To build up strong pectoral fin muscles the moms take them swimming against the tide...out to the entrance of the lagoon when the tide is coming in and then they rest for a bit, nurse and when the tide changes, they swim back to the inner lagoon. It looks like a whale parade as they pass by the panga in single file.

ORPHAN BABIES
      Occasionally a mother whale dies giving birth to her calf or soon after. Most of these infants are doomed as they must be adopted immediately or they drown or beach themselves. Newborns are weak and need to rest every little while by laying ontop of the mother or resting it's tail or chin on her back. If mother is missing, the calf will swim into the shallow water to rest on the bottom and if the tide goes out, it gets stranded on the beach. Large whales die of internal injury when stranded as their great weight crushes organs but a calf can survive for much longer making it possible to return them to the water.
      We have tried to help several stranded babies return to the sea on the next high tide by pouring water over them to keep them wet, covering them with something to provide shade to prevent sunburn and keeping the birds and coyotes away from them. There are many methods to return a baby whale to the ocean at the next high tide but you need to release it where there are lots of nursing females. If they don't find their mother or a stepmother, they just swim back to the beach as they don't seem to fancy drowning. 
 This is a photo of a poor lost soul who came to our boat asking "Are you my mother?" hoping we would adopt it. The calf was older...about 2 months old and very skinny and weak. The baby came and stayed with our boat for a couple hours which was very sad as we all knew she would not survive many more days. Sure enough she beached herself a couple days later and we grieved her passing.
      Once a baby beached by mistake I think...or became separated from it's mom and needed to rest. When we found it, we could see the mother pacing back and forth in as close as the depth of water would permit her without beaching herself. It was obvious it was the mother. This was the only time we were successful in reuniting a calf with it's mother when we finally got it into the deep water by rolling it down the beach on a tarp. But now knowing it is possible, we try harder but it is rare an adult gray will take on an orphan baby. And boy does she have her flippers full when she does.
      With two calves nursing all the time, sometimes she has to take measures like swimming upside down with her flippers in the air so her breasts are on the surface making it impossible for the calf to nurse. It's how she takes a break to let the milk come in and is a strange sight indeed. When they get a bit older and start straying off to play with the boats, the mother has double worries and struggles to keep them both safe and under control. We laughed at a poor mom who was busy getting her one baby away from the boats while the other one snuck off to play with us. She finally just gave up and let the kids have their fun.
      A very lucky calf will find a nursing female who is large and healthy enough to sustain a second baby who is willing and gracious enough to support two kids the size of cars!

LOVE THOSE DIMPLES!
      When whale babies are born, they are pinkish gray and immediately begin to turn darker gray. Their noses are short...pug nosed and they have the cutest dimples, each with a long hair growing out of them. Their skin is very soft and the first layer of baby skin rubs off easily. After the first week, birthmarks appear as gray patches or round spots and the snout starts to push out. By the third week, these identifying marks turn white and their nose grows longer. We can tell the age of a calf by the color of the birthmarks and length of it's nose. Calves that have barnacle encrusted mothers soon get very mottled skin as it gets sloughed off on it's mothers sharp barnacles as the baby constantly rubs up against her. A dark gray mother with few barnacles will have a calf the same color.
      These barnacles are indigineous to gray whales, not found anywhere else in the world. They spawn in the warm waters of the lagoon and the baby barnacles latch onto the newborn calves in the softest areas around the blowhole and the crook of the tail flukes first. Can you tell which of these calves had a clean mom? The one with all the white splotches on it's mouth must have had a very crusty mother.