2006 Camp Update
By Caroline Armon
March 17th, 2006
Well the whales certainly have a lot of fans out there! Everyone this week came to camp intent on kissing whales, and that’s just what they did!! It was hard to tell who enjoys our encounters the most: the calves who think we’re pretty darn interesting, the mother whales who are happy to let us baby-sit, or the people who have to choose between loving on the whales and taking photos!
The calves are getting noticeably bigger; we estimate they’ve gained a couple feet in length and at least a hundred pounds during the last couple months. We’ve also had our first noticeable decline in whale numbers. About two thirds of the single adult whales have already begun their migration back to their feeding grounds in Alaska.
Some old friends of Campo Cortez returned this week bringing a number of new friends. We, along with 4 visitors from London, celebrated the birthdays of Dennis and Doug with songs, jokes, music, and dancing!
Census of Gray Whales in San Ignacio Lagoon
Date |
Cow/Calf Pairs |
Single Adults |
Total Whales |
2 February |
24 |
32 |
80 |
9 February |
56 |
43 |
155 |
23 February |
74 |
138 |
286 |
2 March |
53 |
182 |
288 |
17 March |
82 |
53 |
217 |
24 March |
95 |
9 |
199 |
30 March |
33 |
4 |
70 |
Caroline Armon
Logs & Diaries -- Guest Comments -- Field Reports -- Gray Whale Census
