The Pacific Gray Whale Of Malibu, California
This month’s article shall discuss..
Malibu, California! Malibu, California is a city located along the coast of Southern California. It is famed for its beautiful beaches & it’s wide array of celebrities. Malibu is located in Los Angeles county, approximately 32.60 miles from Downtown Los Angeles. What is not well known about Malibu, is the fact that Malibu’s beaches are flooded by many different species of marine life. It is not often seen that Malibu offers a unique marine environment compared to other California coastal areas. For example, in Malibu Lagoon State Beach, many wading birds will swim around the lagoon & watch swimmers alike. Not only that, but Malibu is a prime area for Mussel hunting. Malibu has an abundance of Mussels so you may take them & eat them, however there are certain months of the year in which they are poisonous, so make sure to do research as to if they are safe to eat. Malibu is also a prime area to fish off of a pier, as the Malibu Sport Fishing pier is always open & extremely busy. On this pier, a fishing license is not required to fish. The majority of Malibu does require a fishing permit, so make sure to check the areas in which you are fishing. There is one species in particular which is somewhat elusive to humans, yet found commonly in Malibu. This species is the Gray Pacific Whale (Eschrichtius Robustus). The Gray Pacific Whale is a species of baleen whale with a distinctive white mottling pattern that adorns their grey skin. They are highly migratory & will migrate a seasonal 10,000 to 14,000 miles each winter from Sea of Japan to California. They are well known for this as not many other whale species travel this far in a single winter. Pacific Gray Whales at one point were known as “Devil Fish” due to their aggressive behaviour towards whalers. Pacific Gray whales used to be found in the North Atlantic, but they were hunted into extinction by humans in the late 18th Century. In this month of December, Pacific Gray Whales may be seen from various coastal points in Malibu as this is the season they are found across California. In this article, we shall discuss the life of the Pacific Gray Whale, The mating & reproductive habits, tactics, cycles, strategies, & procedures of the Pacific Gray Whale, the distribution of the Pacific Gray Whale, & finally, the scientific detailings of the gray whale. With that being said, let us delve into the majestic Devil Fish.
The Life Of The Pacific Gray Whale
The Pacific Gray Whale was first described by Wilhelm Lilljeborg, a swedish zoologist. This species was first described in the year 1861. He discovered by looking at fossil that was found of this species in the Baltic Sea. The Pacific Gray Whale reaches a length of 14.9352 meters (49 feet) at its maximum. This length does differ between sexes, as the females are slightly larger. It reaches a maximum weight of 41 metric tonnes (90,389.5 pounds & 41,000 kilograms). This species of whale in particular lives on average between 55-70 years. Though, one female was recorded to have lived 75-80 years so it is possible for them to have longer life-spans. Since this is a cetacean, it is extremely intelligent. They are not very social & they do not live in familial groups. They do display some level of intelligence, but in contrast to a bottlenose dolphin or an orca they are not very smart. However, in constrast to the majority of other oceanic animals they rank extremely high. They are in fact some of the best communicators of the ocean. They are often solitary however they do communicate with other whales. This species in particular has existed for at minimum 100,000 years, as this is the farthest back a mass migration of this species between the Pacific Ocean & the Atlantic Ocean as been recorded. This species has not been studied in captivity, so it is not being actively observed. Pacific Gray Whales will occasionally approach small boats & allow humans to touch them. They seem to enjoy this, so this indicates that they have a positive relationship with mankind. They are aggressive towards harpooners who attack them, so they can be violent but only if provoked. Since they are highly migratory, they are not territorial & will not fight over territory. They can swim up to 11 miles per hour (17.7028 kilometers per hour), however their average speed is at a mere at 5-8 miles per hour (8.04672 to 12.8748 kilometers per hour). They swim by rapidly flexing their tails up & down & steer using their flippers. They are baleen whales, meaning they strain their food out of the water using their large mouths. They feed by dragging themselves on the bottom of the ocean & consuming whatever they strain in. They are able to deflect sediment by using the fringes on their mouth which catches the sediment, but not the crustaceans. They primarily feed on crustaceans, they are not cannibalistic in any capacity. They will not feed while migrating or during winter, since they have a very slow metabolism which helps them to build up fat in their body. This helps them keep themselves both insulated & fed during the winter or while they are migrating. They will consume an average of 16,000 small creatures per square yard that they swim. They usually take short dives that last 3-4 minutes, although it is somewhat unclear how many times they do this per day or how much ground they are able to cover in such a short amount of time. Using all information on hand, they most likely cover 366.6666666432 yards each time they dive down. This means that they may get as many as 5,866,666.66629 small crustaceans each time they dive. They do not seem to be nocturnal hunters. Their largest natural predators are large shark species & killer whales of various kinds. This species is marked as least concern on the IUCN red list. An adult Pacific Gray Whale will have white mottled skin with small eyes that are located nearby the mouth. They do not have a dorsal finn, so this makes them slightly more noticeable. They also often have barnacles growing on them, & whale lice. These barnacle formations are in a higher concentration nearby the tail & the head of the whale.
The Mating & Reproductive Habits, Tactics, Cycles, Strategies, & Procedures Of The Pacific Gray Whale
The Pacific Gray whale mates via sexual reproduction. They are not monogamous & will mate with many different whales over the course of their lifetime. There are in no capacity hermaphroditic in any capacity & do not have the ability to change sexes. Both males & females will become fully sexually mature between the ages of 6 to 12 years. This species does lactate after the whale calf is born. It is unknown when exactly the females & males are most fertile, but we estimate their most fertile years to be before 36 years. Their gestation period can be extended to 13 months, however it is most often 12 months. The mother will give birth every 24 months to 32 months, or every 2-3 years after her first pregnancy. However the length between pregnancy may increase with her age. They do appear to have a specific mating season, that being late November to early December. Breeding does take place throughout the year, but these are the most concentrated times of calf conception. The actual mating ritual itself is unclear, however it is known that there may be up to 3 partners mating simultaneously all with one another. After the female is pregnant for 12-13 months, she will give live birth. The mother will give birth usually in a lagoon less then 4 meters deep. They do have a specific place where they all give birth, that place being Mexico. They will give birth in various Mexican lagoons & bays. She will only bear a single calf & the idea of having twins is practically impossible. Once the newborn calf is brought into the world, she will hold it at the top of the lagoon in order to ensure that it is breathing properly. Mother whales of this species are extremely violent towards anything they perceive as a threat to their baby. She will lactate until the calf is 6 to 7 months old & then the calf will begin consuming solid food. After 1 year of the calf being alive, it will become independent of its mother & go to its mothers same feeding ground. It will inherit the mothers feeding ground. After this, the mother will cease to be a part of the child’s life. The mother will then repeat this process with her next calf. Also, this species of whale does not often travel in a pod, instead opting to travel alone.
The Distribution Of The Pacific Gray Whale
The Pacific Gray Whale is found throughout the Pacific ocean, specifically the northern Pacific. Every year, they will migrate from Japan to California & Alaska. This makes it so that they are often found on the western coast of the united states, as well as the Alaskan gulf. They are highly migratory creatures & will not stay in one place. They are often found in shallower regions of the Pacific Ocean. It is extremely rare to find one of them deep down in the ocean. They will often spend their summers in Japan & Korea then migrate to California in the winter. They are often also found in coastal areas unless they are migrating.
The Scientific Detailings Of The Pacific Gray Whale
Possibly the most interesting thing about the Pacific Gray Whale, or whales in general, is their blowhole located atop their skull. What is not often known is that the blowhole on a whale, is their nostril. Since they have a hole atop their head, they do not need to get completely out of the water in-order to breathe. This helps them preserve energy & sleep properly. They use their blowhole by taking breathed of air at the surface, then contracting the muscles around the blowhole so that the blowhole is tightly closed. They close it while underwater so that water does not get into the whales lungs. Their bones are not hollow but instead are somewhat thin. Since they are baleen whales, they have teeth plates that they use to strain in krill. They have frills around their teeth that will catch any debris & dirt from entering the whales mouth. They have between 130 & 180 different baleen plates. These plates are made of keratin, which makes them flexible yet durable. They play an extremely important role in the ecosystem of Malibu by eating the amount of krill they do, without them there would be many food chain issues. Bones of them often wash up on beaches, specifically their heads. Also they have only 1 singular fossil of them to be discovered to this date. This fossil was discovered off of the coast of Southern California from the Pleistocene period. This would date it to be between as old as 50,000 to 120,000 years. Their phylum is Chordata meaning that they developed these 5 characteristics all species under the phylum of chordata develop 5 similar characteristics either In adulthood or as juveniles. The characteristics that they develop include, a notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal Slits, & a post-anal tail. Their class is Mammalia. Mammalia is classified by the production of milk by the mother for their child to nurse, a neocortex which is a region of the brain, some capacity of fur or hair, & three middle ear bones. There are currently 6,400 species categorized under the class of Mammalia. Their order is Artiodactyla. which are even toed ungulates. Species categorized under Artiodactyla are ungulates, hoofed animals which bear weight equally on two of their five toes, these toes are the third & fourth toes. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigal, or pointing posteriorly. Their infraorder is that of Cetacea. Key characteristics of this infraorder are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size & exclusively carnivorous diet. Another characteristic is their incredible social intelligence. There are roughly 90 species categorized under Cetacea. Their family is that of Eschrichtiidae. This family contains 4 genera yet only 1 species. That species would be the Pacific Gray Whale. The majority of the genera in this family have fossils that date back to the Pliocene era. This family was named to honour the Danish zoologist Daniel Fredrik Eschricht. Their genus is that of Eschrichtius & is also named after Daniel Fredrik Eschricht. There is only 2 species in this genus, those species being Eschrichtius Robustus & Eschrichtius Akishimaensis. Their Binomial name is Eschrichtius Robustus.
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