Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The grays return

Within a decade and a half of the first gray whale killing in Laguna Ojo de Liebre, it was fished out.

Gray whale baleen
Gray whale baleen

Early whale hunters saw spouts over the dunes before they found the bay entrance, but in early winter of 1857, Charles Melville Scammons led the first two whaling ships into Laguna Ojo de Liebre on Baja’s Pacific coast. There the two ships killed some 20 gray whale cows for oil and baleen, the comblike upper jaw they use to filter out small creatures they eat. Baleen, processed, was called whalebone and was used to make umbrella ribs and ladies' corsets. Whalers hunted the lagoon the following winter with a larger fleet and harvested nearly 200 cows — 7,000 barrels of oil. Each year whalers came and found fewer whales calving until, within a decade and a half of the first gray whale killed in Laguna Ojo de Liebre, it was fished out. Whalers did not return. Whales did and now, almost 160 years since that first harpoon struck whale flesh in the lagoon, they are hunted by tourists.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Ojo de Liebre (Scammon’s Lagoon) is now a destination for whale-watchers. Court battles against industrial waste and too much tourism worked; the gray whale was taken off the endangered species list in 1994. The lagoon is regulated during calving season. The operators position the boats and sit to allow whales to approach. Some whales push their calves close to the skiffs and allow petting by whale watchers.

The gray whales’ migration takes them from Alaska and the Bering Sea to Baja Sur, a round-trip of up to 13,000 miles. As they feed mostly by disrupting the bottom with their snouts and filtering out small creatures with their baleen, gray whales tend to stay in coastal waters and can be spotted from shore. The local gray whale watching season starts mid-December and runs through mid-April. Later, in the summer, the big blue whales come through, but for San Diego’s whale watch fleet, the gray is their darling.

Whale Watching

Scripps' Birch Aquarium naturalists provide professional narration aboard Flagship Cruises’ educational trips that begin Saturday, December 17 and run through mid-April.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

In-n-Out alters iconic symbol to reflect “modern-day California”

Keep Palm and Carry On?
Next Article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Gray whale baleen
Gray whale baleen

Early whale hunters saw spouts over the dunes before they found the bay entrance, but in early winter of 1857, Charles Melville Scammons led the first two whaling ships into Laguna Ojo de Liebre on Baja’s Pacific coast. There the two ships killed some 20 gray whale cows for oil and baleen, the comblike upper jaw they use to filter out small creatures they eat. Baleen, processed, was called whalebone and was used to make umbrella ribs and ladies' corsets. Whalers hunted the lagoon the following winter with a larger fleet and harvested nearly 200 cows — 7,000 barrels of oil. Each year whalers came and found fewer whales calving until, within a decade and a half of the first gray whale killed in Laguna Ojo de Liebre, it was fished out. Whalers did not return. Whales did and now, almost 160 years since that first harpoon struck whale flesh in the lagoon, they are hunted by tourists.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Ojo de Liebre (Scammon’s Lagoon) is now a destination for whale-watchers. Court battles against industrial waste and too much tourism worked; the gray whale was taken off the endangered species list in 1994. The lagoon is regulated during calving season. The operators position the boats and sit to allow whales to approach. Some whales push their calves close to the skiffs and allow petting by whale watchers.

The gray whales’ migration takes them from Alaska and the Bering Sea to Baja Sur, a round-trip of up to 13,000 miles. As they feed mostly by disrupting the bottom with their snouts and filtering out small creatures with their baleen, gray whales tend to stay in coastal waters and can be spotted from shore. The local gray whale watching season starts mid-December and runs through mid-April. Later, in the summer, the big blue whales come through, but for San Diego’s whale watch fleet, the gray is their darling.

Whale Watching

Scripps' Birch Aquarium naturalists provide professional narration aboard Flagship Cruises’ educational trips that begin Saturday, December 17 and run through mid-April.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Bait and Switch at San Diego Symphony

Concentric contemporary dims Dvorak
Next Article

Escondido planners nix office building switch to apartments

Not enough open space, not enough closets for Hickory Street plans
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader