Huge Whale Shoots Hermosa Beach Pier in Crazy Viral Video (Watch)
Imagine standing on a pier, or sitting in a lineup, and a weirdly friendly, almost gregarious whale shows up...then it shoots the pier, while blowing spray from its spout.
That’s exactly what happened in Hermosa Beach, CA recently and the footage is absolutely nuts.
Check it out below:
Local surfer Hunter Jones commented:
“Insane!! I was just waiting for the people on the pier to freak out. I was disappointed.”
Whale sightings are somewhat common in Southern California, depending on the time of year and the migratory season, but this is next level.
It literally shoots. the. pier.
Take that, Laird Hamilton.
Regarding the mirgratory patterns of gray whales, which the one is seen above, NOAA says:
“Gray whales are found mainly in shallow coastal waters in the North Pacific Ocean, although during migration, they do sometimes cross deep waters far from shore. There are two geographic distributions of gray whales in the North Pacific:
The eastern North Pacific stock or DPS, found along the west coast of North America
The western North Pacific stock or DPS, primarily found along the coast of eastern Asia
“Most of the eastern North Pacific stock gray whales spend the summer feeding in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas, but some feed along the Pacific coast during the summer, in waters off of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California.
“In the fall, eastern North Pacific gray whales migrate from their summer feeding grounds, heading south along the coast of North America to spend the winter in their wintering and calving areas off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Calves are born during migration or in the shallow lagoons and bays of Mexico from early January to mid-February.
“From mid-February to May, eastern North Pacific gray whales can be seen migrating northward along the U.S. West Coast. Although western and eastern stocks of gray whales were thought to be relatively isolated from each other, recent satellite tagging data and photo-identification and genetic matches have shown that at least some western North Pacific gray whales migrate across the northern Gulf of Alaska, and along the west coast of British Columbia, the United States, and Mexico.”
So, most likely, this gray whale was making its way down to Baja for the winter. But it decided to make a quick near-shore stop in the South Bay first, giving surfers, swimmers, beachgoers, and pier-walkers quite the show.
Pretty special.
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