Gray Whale Snacks, Laguna Beach Watches From Three Arch Bay

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — It isn't every day that a gray whale heads to Three Arch Bay for a bite of brunch. On Wednesday, Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari tourists and beach goers alike got an eyeful. Capt. Dave sent up a drone to take aerial video showing the unexpected sight of a bottom feeding gray whale enjoying his meal.

The gray whale, trying to find food, twirled in circles just a few feet from astonished beach-goers. As they watched, the whale repeatedly dove down in search of food for over 30 minutes.

Lucky whale-watchers on the catamaran Manute, saw licensed drone pilot Domenic Biagini send up his drone to get a better angle on the remarkable encounter, according to Capt. Dave Anderson.

"That is the best video I have ever seen of these whales feeding off Orange County," Anderson said. "There is not a lot for them to eat around here so we don't really see them foraging. In this video though, near the very end, we can see the whale squeezing the mud out of its mouth."

Warmer waters along the California coast do not contain as many of the types of prey that gray whales prefer as compared to the Arctic waters where the whales spend the summer feeding, according to Anderson. As a result, gray whales often spend much of their 10,000 mile round-trip migration without eating.

Unlike other baleen whales, such as humpback and blue whales the filter small fish or krill from the water column, gray whales are bottom feeders.

They swim to the ocean floor, turn on their side, and scoop up mouthfuls of sediment, Anderson said. Using plates of baleen that hang from the upper jaw, the whale filters out water and sediment, then consumes the tiny amphipods found in abundance in the cold waters of the Bering and Chukchi seas.

Gray whales are currently in the middle of their annual migration that takes them from winter feeding grounds near the cold waters north of Alaska, to the warm waters of Baja, Mexico to mate and give birth in protected lagoons, Anderson said. Adult gray whales average about 45 feet in length and weigh 30 to 40 tons.

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Photo: Capt. Dave Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari, Youtube screenshot.