Valentine’s Day arrived a little early for a pair of gray whales that were migrating past Southern California, on their way to Baja, Mexico. As a pod of curious pacific white-sided dolphins and whale watchers aboard our catamaran Manute'a looked on, the whales rolled around in what appeared to be courtship behavior.

Each year gray whales leave the cold waters near Alaska, where they spend the summer feeding, and make a 12,000-mile round-trip journey to Mexico and back. It’s typically in the warm and protected lagoons of Baja that the gray whales mate and give birth to their calves. It seems these two amorous whales could not wait for Mexico!

Gray whales average between 40 to 50 feet in length and weigh 30 to 40 tons. Calves are about 15 feet long when they’re born and will gain over 50 pounds a day feeding on mother’s milk.

Dana Point is one of the best places to view the annual gray whale migration. Gray whales often travel within a mile or two of the coast and are thought to use Dana Point’s headlands as a landmark on their route.

In just a couple of weeks, Dana Point will be celebrating these animals and other marine wildlife with 48th annual Festival of Whales. Ocean-themed events and activities that have an emphasis on education and environmental responsibility attract nearly 100,000 visitors each year to the world’s first and longest running annual whale festival. The Festival of Whales will be held March 2 - 3 and 9 - 10, 2019.

With a variety of year-round whales, more dolphins per square mile than anywhere in the world, pristine coastline, calm seas, the long-running Festival of Whales, and a captivating harbor minutes from the open ocean, Dana Point, California, is the World’s Whale Watching Capital™.

Video filmed by Mark S. Tyson

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Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari offers daily, year-round, dolphin and whale watching trips from Dana Point, California, aboard a hi-tech catamaran sailboat with Eye-to-Eye Underwater Viewing Pods.

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Dolphin and whale footage is copyright David Anderson/DolphinSafari.com and may not be used without permission.

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