Going Boating? Look Out for Migrating Gray Whales

Officials with the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary are asking boaters to watch out for gray whales as they migrate along the coast to the Arctic this spring.

The whales travel close to shore, even right outside the Golden Gate, and are susceptible to collisions with boats, sanctuary spokeswoman Mary Jane Schramm said.

"We need to give them their space for their sake and for our own sake," Schramm said.

A whale could inadvertently surface and tip a small boat over in San Francisco Bay, where the whales sometimes come for a day or two. Also, avoiding a boat can cost the whales precious energy they need to migrate. Their energy is mostly depleted from their winter breeding in Mexican waters and they've had no appreciable time to eat since late fall, Schramm said.

Also, with the shrinking polar ice cap, gray whales have to travel farther to eat, according to Schramm.

About 19,000 gray whales will migrate through Bay Area waters from March to May. The whales sometimes even travel as close as the surf zone, where waves crash onto the beach.

People may believe they are getting stranded, but that's usually not the case, Schramm said. They travel into the surf zone to allow their calves to rest and nurse.

The sound of the waves allows gray whales to escape killer whales, which use sound to track their prey. The waves act as an acoustic curtain, according to Schramm.

Calves are completely dependent on their mothers during migration. Boaters should be alert to a gray whale's exhalation, which looks like a 10- to 15-foot-high puff of smoke. Little of a gray whale is visible from the water's surface.

Federal guidelines require boaters to avoid approaching within 300 feet of any whale, cutting across a whale's path, making sudden directional or speed changes and getting between a cow and her calf, which could cause the calf to starve.

The gray whale is no longer an endangered species, but 16 to 17 years ago the population dropped by a third because of a lack of food. The whales also used to be hunted like many other whales.

"We should just be delighted they're here," Schramm said.

If you're not going to be in the water, and want to see the whales as the migrate, National Park Service officials say one of the "finest spots" to view gray whales is at the headlands of the Point Reyes Peninsula.

"The Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary provides a 32-kilometer (20-mile) wide "highway" along which the whales cruise; sometimes they travel in the close lane (nearer to shore), and sometimes they travel in the far lane (farther out to sea). The areas around Chimney Rock and the Lighthouse offer some of the best whale watching spots in the park," according to the NPS.

Here are some of the best places besides the Point Reyes National Seashore to watch from dry land, according to the National Park Service:

North of Point Reyes National Seashore

Bodega Head
Bodega Head Park and Sonoma Coast State Beach - Phone: 707-875-3483. From Highway 1 take Westshore Road to the end of Westside Road. 1 hour north of Point Reyes

Jenner
Bluffs at Eckert Acquisition, approximately 13 kilometers (8 miles) north of Jenner on Highway 1.

North Jenner Beaches, from Russian Gulch to Jenner. Jenner is approximately 17.5 kilometers (11 miles) north of Bodega Bay.

Fort Ross
Fort Ross State Park - Phone: 707-847-3286. 19 kilometers (12 miles) north of Jenner on Highway 1.

Stillwater Cove
Stillwater Cove Regional Park - Phone: 707-847-3245. 5 kilometers (3 miles) north of Fort Ross on Highway 1.

Salt Point
Salt Point State Park - Phone: 707-847-3221, 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of Fort Ross on Highway 1.

South of Point Reyes National Seashore

Marin Headlands
Golden Gate National Recreation Area - Phone: 415-331-1540. Take Alexander Avenue exit off Highway 101, north of Golden Gate Bridge. Use Conzelman Rd. to Point Bonita, or Bunker Rd. to Rodeo Beach.

Point Montara
Point Montara Lighthouse - Phone: 650-728-7177 (hostel). Highway 1 & 16 Street, less than 0.8 kilometer (0.5 mile) south of Montara (15 minutes south of San Francisco). Call ahead for more information on day use.

Highway 1 Bluffs
Bluffs along Highway 1 south of Pescadero to Pigeon Point Road.

Pigeon Point
Pigeon Point Lighthouse - Phone: 650-879-0633 (hostel). 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Half Moon Bay (about an hour south of San Francisco). Half Moon Bay is about 30 minutes south of San Francisco. Call ahead for more information on day use.

Ano Nuevo
Ano Nuevo State Reserve - Phone: 650-879-0227. Highway 1 at New Year's Creek. 43 kilometers (27 miles) south of Half Moon Bay on Highway 1.

Whale watching by boat

Our Outfitters & Tours page lists the businesses and organizations offering Whale Watching trips out of San Francisco Bay and Bodega Bay.

The Whale Trail

The Whale Trail is a series of sites along the Pacific coast where the public may view whales and other marine mammals from shore. The Whale Trail's mission is to inspire appreciation and stewardship of whales and our marine environment by establishing a network of viewing sites along the whales' trails through Puget Sound and the coastal waters of the Pacific.

– Bay City News Service contributed to this report. Image via Same Beebe, via Flickr, used under Creative Commons.