Whale Watching

Whale watchers in California were treated to an rare and exciting treat Thursday off the coast of Long Beach, when as many as eight blue whales passed through the area. Dudley Wigdahl has seen his share of whales. He should, hes curator of mammals at the Aquarium of the Pacific. So what could get him this excited? "Man! I was impressed! Ill tell you, I was just like a kid out there. and I do this for a living!" Wigdahl says. So whats got Wigdahl all worked up? The sight Thursday morning, off Point Vicente. An animal with a heart the size of a volkswagen, as long as a ten-story building is tall, and with the largest brain in the world. Also, an enormous tail that elicits squeals of delight from a boat load of reporters invited by the aquarium to see the beasts in person. By some counts, there were eight total just off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. "Theyre the largest mammal thats ever been on Earth. They surpass all the dinosaurs that have ever been here," Wigdahl says. Commercial whaling decimated blue whale populations worldwide until a global ban in the early 1980s, but were told these populations off California are now back in the 2,500 range. Still not ideal, says Wigdahl, but enough to bring quite a few of the massive mammals here to feast on krill. Thats the shrimp-like food the blues ingest by thousands of pounds a day. They will stick around until the krill run low, then move on. Until then, whale watchers will queue up in hopes of seeing something that weighs 300,000 pounds.