Story Published: Dec 26, 2007 at 4:20 PM PST
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Folks will gather at the headlands along 294 miles of the Oregon Coast starting on Wednesday, Dec. 26, scanning the horizon for any sign of passing gray whales. It's the season for whale-watching, when 18,000 aquatic mammals make their way from feeding grounds in the Bering Sea to their breeding lagoons along Baja, Mexico. In past years, visitors from 50 states and 47 foreign countries have come to stand on bluffs 50 to 100 feet above the surf, searching for signs of the watery exhale of whale breath, when the cry goes up: "Thar she blows!". Over the past 30 years, an average annual count of 13,205 humans has come to observe the passage of 1,452 whales. The watchers outnumber watched by a factor of nearly 10-to-1. Scientists speculate about what the whale thinks of these human patterns and some think the whales may be laughing. Whales, after all, have the biggest brains on earth, marked by the convolutions associated with intelligence.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)