Gray Whales’ Trip Home Is a Killer

If you’re among those who spent at least one day whale watching this season, chances are you had close encounter or two and went home feeling pretty good about the plight of the California gray whale.

No longer are people allowed to fire harpoons into their massive bodies--or to harass them in any way. Because of this, as you might have learned, the grays have built their population back to near-historic levels. There are about 24,000 of them.

You might even think the grays pretty much have it made, spending their winters frolicking in Baja California’s balmy lagoons, pumping out little whales and bringing them home to live high in the nutrient-rich waters off Alaska.

Think again.

That 6,000-mile journey home, especially for mother and calf, can be a killer.

That has become strikingly evident in recent weeks in the murky depths of a submarine canyon in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. That’s where another beloved water-dwelling mammal, the killer whale, has been waiting in ambush.

Killer whales are masters of surprise. It is believed they can hear the grays coming.

A hunting party of 15-30 killer whales, usually part of a larger pod, generally strikes fast and hard, grabbing the mother gray by her fins, chasing and harassing her until she becomes separated from her calf. They then haul down and drown the calf, then feast for hours.

The mother, despite her 30 tons, has no teeth and only a powerful fluke with which to fight the smaller, much quicker killer whales. She is, in essence, helpless to save her calf and usually resumes her northbound journey alone.

This seasonal phenomenon is truly one of nature’s most dramatic spectacles, one rarely witnessed by the weekend whale watcher, who probably has no idea that “orcas,” portrayed in recent movies as such amiable creatures, can be so violent.

“Most people don’t even know we have killer whales off our coast,” said Nancy Black, a Monterey marine biologist who has studied killer whales for eight years. “This is not unusual. It’s only unusual that we’ve had so many [reported attacks] in so short a period of time.”

With assistance from the sanctuary, which occasionally offers the use of a boat and crew, Black has been busy following up on those reports.

On April 11, she was on a sanctuary boat and watched as 25-30 killer whales dined on a calf that had been killed before she got there.

“They were stripping off blubber and feeding on the blubber and tongue,” she said. “That’s what they usually get first.”

On April 13, a crew aboard a fishing boat reported 15 killer whales chasing grays south of Monterey.

On April 21, aboard the Point Sur Clipper with researcher Richard Ternullo, Black spent several hours observing and photographing 15 killer whales reducing what had been a 20-foot juvenile gray whale to practically nothing.

“Half the whale was gone and they were feeding on the last half, ripping off pieces of blubber,” she said. “It was pretty dramatic. They reminded me of sharks, twisting and shaking as they tried to grab the pieces. We watched for four hours, and obviously before that, other whales had been feeding on the [gray]. Then after four hours, they grouped together and left all at once, traveling to the northwest.”

On April 24, Black went out and again saw killer whales feeding on another gray whale carcass. But 30-knot winds forced the boat to turn back.

“Since then, we’ve had a few other reports, the last one on Monday,” she said. “A person from [nearby] Aptos saw grays coming toward the beach and killer whales chasing them.”

Not all killer whales live up to their name in such fashion.

There are two classifications for killer whale pods, resident and transient. Resident pods are relatively small groups that rarely venture far from their home regions. They feed largely on fish and squid. Transient pods pass through specific areas from time to time and tend to prey on other mammals.

It is the transients, obviously, that are making life rough for mother grays and their calves as they migrate home. The male gray, a promiscuous fellow, does not accompany the cow and calf.

Transient killer whales are sophisticated hunters. One probable reason they choose to stake out the Monterey area is because of the deep canyon the grays must pass through en route home.

Mother grays generally stay fairly close to shore on their return trip, where perhaps they rely on kelp beds and a noisier inshore sea to help them travel undetected.

“But when they cross that canyon and get toward the other side, they approach a shelf and that is where the killer whales get them,” Black said. “The killer whales may find the grays by listening for them. The grays make a low-frequency knocking sound and seem to make more sound when they’re coming up to the shallows, perhaps for navigation purposes.”

In any case, the killer whales don’t seem to have much trouble locating their prey. They remain silent during the ambush, but after successfully separating the mother from the calf and drowning the calf--a violent process that can take several hours--they begin to vocalize.

“Probably to let everybody know that chow’s on,” said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, Black’s Los Angeles colleague in charge of the Gray Whale Census Project for the American Cetacean Society.

She said that anyone who might be turned off by such killer whale attacks ought to realize that they are part of the grand scheme of things and do not have an adverse effect on the gray whale population as a whole.

“Everybody needs a check,” Schulman-Janiger said. “And this is basically the only one the gray whales have.”

Schulman-Janiger said volunteers at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center on the Palos Verdes Peninsula have observed 1,563 gray whales this season and an all-time high 200 northbound cow-calf pairs, including 22 on Thursday.

One of the calves seemed to be traveling without a mother and swimming erratically.

The little fella is obviously in big trouble.

AROUND THE SOUTHLAND

Dave Hawn of North Hollywood was top angler out of about 200 competing in last weekend’s annual Marina del Rey Halibut Derby, landing a 35 1/2-pounder and winning a new boat.

Sports Ltd. is sponsoring a professional wakeboard tournament this weekend at Castaic Lake north of Los Angeles. Wakeboards are similar to water skis. Amateurs will compete Saturday at 10 a.m., pros Sunday. Details: (818) 225-7669.

Prospective hunters can earn their mandatory safety certificates Saturday by completing a 10-hour course at Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises in Norco. Details: (800) 773-4868.

Instructors Dennis Braid, Larry Wilkin, Mike Bales and Kit McNear will cover aspects of fishing and hauling boats in Baja on Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Burch Ford in La Habra. Details: (818) 913-1612. . . . Ronnie Kovach, director of the Penn Fishing University Symposium, heads a team of veteran anglers that will conduct seminars on how to improve chances of catching freshwater and saltwater game fish, May 17 at L.A. Valley College. Details: (818) 988-3911.

The Great American Outdoors Show and Demo Days will be held May 16-18 at Irvine Lake. Visitors will be able to try everything from fishing boats and personal watercraft to camping gear and canoes. Details: (714) 649-9113.

The United Anglers of Southern California’s annual banquet-auction--to raise money for their white seabass restoration project and an artificial reef project--will be held May 17. Details: (714) 840-0227.

LOCAL BITE

Nothing like a solid yellowtail bite to heat things up on the waterfront. The strong-swimming jacks have been surfacing in huge schools from just south of the border to San Clemente Island.

“Since last Friday, we’ve been getting limits,” said Gary White, spokesman for Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego. “We’re going west for some, but the majority have been caught 40 miles south along the coast.”

Vessels from Newport Beach to L.A. Harbor have been getting similar results--catching fish up to 20 pounds--at San Clemente. The Thunderbird out of Davey’s Locker had 10-fish limits for 15 passengers by 11 a.m. Tuesday.

BAJA BITE

Focus on East Cape/La Paz:

40 roosterfish hooked and 22 landed, including a potential fly-rod world-record 22-pounder on six-pound tippet and a 29-pound 4-ounce fish on eight-pound tippet.

The catches were made May 2 by Dan Dreyer and Grant Hartman of BajaAnglers, Cabo San Lucas fly-fishing specialists scouting the East Cape in advance of multi-day trips that will begin in June. Details: (888) 894-3474.

In the La Paz area, fishing has picked up markedly in the last week. David Jones of Fishermen’s Fleet says the estimated size of the school of pargo on the east side of Cerralvo Island is 10,000 fish. One of his customers--Jones didn’t divulge the name but a friend said it was Lucy Lawless, a.k.a. Xena the Warrior Princess--muscled in a 44-pounder. Jones said cabrilla and yellowtail are also abundant and feeding around the island, and that schools of sizable tuna--one tipped the scales at 72 pounds--are breezing about offshore.

“On Tuesday, a couple of sailfish came into the tuna school to see what was up, and they obliged our customers by choosing one of the sardines that was wearing lip jewelry,” he said.