2010 Gray Whale Survey

The 2010 winter gray whale research at Laguna San Ignacio began in mid-January and continued until early-April 2010.  Gray whale abundance monitoring involved 15 weekly census counts of gray whales in the lagoon to monitor the number of whales in the lagoon each week and lagoon habitat use. Weekly census counts began on January 19th 2009 and continued until April 1, 2010, with the greatest number of adult whales counted on 27 February 2010 (256 adults and 17 mother-calf pairs). Overall, fewer mother-calf pairs were seen than in the previous three winters, suggesting that they may be utilizing other calving areas in Baja California. In contrast, counts of single whales were the highest seen in the previous three years, reaching a maximum count of 239 whales on 27 February. The low counts of mother-calf pairs may be related to the increase in single breeding animals that are known to harass and disturb females with calves.