MOVEMENTS OF GRAY WHALES AMONG THE CALVING AND BREEDING LAGOONS IN THE BAJA CALIFORNIA PENINSULA.

Naturally occurring markings on the skin of gray whales and photographic identification and analysis methods were used to determine the number of whales that traveled between their breeding and calving lagoons and aggregation areas along the west coast of Baja California Peninsula, in Mexico. From 1,942 individual whales photographed during the 2012 and 2013 winters, 56 photographic matches or recaptures during the same year were found between the three primary winter aggregation areas of Bahia Magdalena, Laguna San Ignacio and Laguna Ojo de Liebre (also known as Scammon’s lagoon). These recaptures included 40 female-calf pairs and 16 single whales (i.e., adult whales without calves). Of these recaptures, 80.4% were between Bahia Magdalena and Laguna San Ignacio, 16% were between Laguna Ojo de Liebre and Laguna San Ignacio, and 3.6% were between Bahia Magdalena and Laguna Ojo de liebre.