Whale watching on the Santa Monica Pier during last year's “Whale of a Weekend”. Photo: Heal the Bay.
A happy Aquarium visitor checks out a gray whale vertebra, one of the many whale-related activities planned for the “Whale of a Weekend” event! Photo: Heal the Bay.

On February 2nd and 3rd, the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium will be celebrating the gray whales' annual migration back to the arctic. During this special “Whale of a Weekend”, a host of whale-related activities will be ongoing both days from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. at the Aquarium, located beach level at the Santa Monica Pier!

Among the many activities planned are:

• Watching for whales and marine life: Aquarium naturalists will staff a marine life observation station at the west end of the Santa Monica Pier. Binoculars and field guides will be provided for guests to search for whales and other local wildlife.

• Peering beneath the pier: Guests can also observe the marine life beneath the waves with the Aquarium’s Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). Participants can take turns controlling the ROV via remote as it broadcasts live video from underneath the pier.

• Crafts, movies and puppet shows: Inside the Aquarium, children can make a variety of whale related arts and crafts, put on puppet shows, or try on a layer of blubber to feel the warmth it provides at the blubber experiment station.

• Presentations: Story times, film screenings and a public lecture on whales will round out the two-day celebration.

Learn all about these gentle giants and about their annual migration during the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium's “Whale of a Weekend”! Admission is free for children 12 and under when accompanied by an adult. For those 13 and older, a $5 donation is suggested, with a minimum $2 admission per person required. For groups of 10 or more, the fee is $2 per person. Call 310-393-6149 for more information.

About Gray Whales

Gray whales complete an annual, round trip migration of 10,000 to 14,000 miles, one of the longest migrations of any animal. The whales travel south from their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic’s Chukchi and Bering seas to their winter home in the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, where they spend several months mating and calving.

Around January, the whales begin the return journey north to the Arctic. According to the Cetacean Society, the mothers and calves travel close to shore as they make the two- to three-month trek north.

After being hunted to the brink of extinction, the gray whale has been a protected population since 1947, and the population has rebounded to between 19,000 and 23,000 animals. Adult gray whales are approximately 45 feet in length and weigh 30 to 40 tons.