Recently, there have been Blue Whale sightings only two miles off the Palos Verdes Peninsula coast near Point Vicente. The Peninsula News reported that the whales are here to eat the abundant krill that are attracted to the nutrients near the continental shelf off our coast. The blue whale is the largest mammal on earth (as long as 3 school buses) and can weigh up to 336,000 pounds. They are an endangered species with approximately 2,000 living in the Pacific Ocean (the largest grouping) and hundreds more in the Antarctic and Atlantic Ocean.
Dudley Wigdahl, Curator of Mammals at the Aquarium of the Pacific said the blue whales will be swimming up and down the coast for awhile before they migrate south for the winter. To see the blue whales, Captain Dan Salas of Harbor Breeze Cruises has special blue whale excursions (562-432-4900) . When I called Harbor Breeze Cruises today they said that they had not seen any whales yesterday probably because of the storm coming in, but had seen some over the weekend. They are spectacular mammals and are well worth taking a few minutes of your day to watch.
Above photo courtesy of Tom Underhill, Peninsula News
