We Saw a Whale!

Finally, after all these years of hearing about whales along the coast, we catch sight of one (sort of). This was late in the afternoon on Sunday, June 7, 2009. We drove down the beach from the Roosevelt Beach Road to the Iron Springs area. We had been painting the deck all day, so I wanted to let the kids have some beach time before driving home. We brought our bicycles on this trip and rode around.

Suddenly, a fisherman standing out in the surf started yelling excitedly and pointing out onto the ocean. Once I paid attention to him, I saw a cloud of spray above the waves, which must have been the exhaled breath of a whale. For a fraction of a second after that, I think I saw a fin. My wife watched the scene longer and saw several exhaled breaths.

This was perhaps a straggling Pacific Grey whale from the spring migration. It must have been small, since it seemed to be fairly near the shore.