Langley gets set to welcome the whales
Published 7:00 am Wednesday, April 11, 2007
South Whidbey’s great, gray guests of honor have already arrived, and organizers of this year’s Welcome the Whales day say this weekend’s festival will include new displays, events and activities for the kids.
The annual event — which includes a parade through the streets of Langley with “Gary,” the 20-foot-long kid-powered puppet of a gray whale — features fun and educational activities, presentations, music and gray whale watch tours. It’s held every April to celebrate the spring arrival of resident gray whales to Whidbey Island.
The Orca Network has reported multiple sightings of gray whales in recent weeks.
On Sunday, a gray whale was sighted off North Bluff Road north of Greenbank and was seen swimming south toward Holmes Harbor. On Saturday, two grays were seen mid-channel on the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry route, and three others were seen south of Possession Point. The day before, kayakers near the Langley marina reported two grays feeding near the Village by the Sea.
Susan Berta of the Orca Network said it’s easy to spot grays when they’re feeding.
“What they tend to do is zig zag in and out. The other day I got a call at 8 o’clock [morning] that they were feeding off North Bluff in Greenbank,” she said.
For about an hour, the grays went from one spot on the beach to the next, but stayed within view. Our resident whales are surprisingly predictable, she added.
“This small population of six to 10 stays for three months, and pretty much like clockwork they have shown up the first week of March. And by the end of May or early June, they have moved on to finish the migration,” Berta said.
It’s thought the gray whales migrate to the Bering Sea before turning south, eventually coming home to their mating grounds in the waters of Baja, Mexico.
Whale watchers on Whidbey should know what they’re looking for when trying to spot one of our resident grays.
“It’s not as obvious as a pod of orcas going by. When they’re swimming by, you only see their spouts.
“They don’t have any dorsal fins like the orcas, and then, if they’re diving, you might see their flukes come up,” Berta said.
Best viewing spots?
“Langley is one of the best,” she said, adding that anywhere along the town’s downtown waterfront is a choice spot.
Grays often feed around Sandy Point, too.
“We’ve had quite a few reports off Possession Point, and up in the Greenbank area they tend to feed,” she said.
Spots are fewer on the north end, but Strawberry Point is one.
Of course, people can learn much more about our grays during the Welcome the Whales Day Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 14 in Langley.
The festival starts with hands-on educational displays at the Methodist Church Fellowship Hall at Third and Anthes streets, and those who don’t have a costume for the parade can make one at the church.
The line-up for the “critter parade” with Gary begins at 12:45 p.m. in the parking lot at Cascade and Sixth streets, and the parade starts at 1:30 p.m. It ends at Langley Waterfront Park for music and celebration, and, hopefully, a good glimpse of gray whales swimming nearby.
Educational slide shows will be presented at 3 p.m. by Carrie Newell of Whale Research Excursions and by the staff of the Orca Network.
Newell will share what she’s learned from watching whales during her research along the Oregon Coast, where she identified more than 50 individual whales and learned about each whale’s personality, behavior and unique markings. The Orca Network will also present a slide show about its recent trip to Baja, Mexico, to visit the gray whales in their mating and birthing lagoons.
Mystic Sea Charters will offer whale watch tours at 11:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Tours cost $39; reservations can be made by calling 1-800-308-9387.
