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The California 

 Gray Whale 



Papers presented at the 



California Gray Wtiale Workshop, 



University of California, 



San Diego, Scripps Institution 



of Oceanography, 



21-22 August 1972. 



Sponsored by 



Southwest Fisheries Center, 

 La Jolla Laboratory, National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 



and 



U.S. Department of the Navy's 

 Naval Undersea Center, 

 San Diego. 





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.1930 



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CARL L. HUBBS, Chairman. 

 W. E. EVANS, Editor. 



PREFACE 



In early March 1971 an expedition 

 sponsored by Sea World. Inc. of .San 

 Diego, under the direction of David 

 W. Kenney with scientific support 

 from the University of California. 

 San Diego, captured a newborn female 

 California gray whale [Eschrichiius 

 ri>hu.'itns) in Scammon's Lagoon. Baja 

 California Sur. Mexico. This whale, 

 5.84 meters long and weighing 1.952 

 kilograms, arrived at Sea World in 

 San Diego on 17 March 1971. 



Although not the first successful 

 capture of an immature California 

 gray whale, this was however the be- 

 ginning of a successful year of mainte- 

 nance in captivity and the subsequent 

 release into the wild, the first time for 

 any species of baleen whale. The 

 results of the scientific studies con- 

 ducted during this year of captivity 

 and the later field observations which 

 were stimulated by the release of this 

 unique whale, are the subject of this 

 publication. 



Many important contributors to 

 our overall understanding of the com- 

 plexities of the biology of the Cali- 

 fornia gray whale are not formally 

 represented in this report as contribu- 

 tors. The impact of the work of Carl 

 L. Hubbs. Scripps Institution of 

 Oceanography. University of Califor- 

 nia, San Diego, La Jolla; Raymond 

 Gilmore, Museum of Natural History, 

 San Diego; and Dale Rice, National 

 Marine Fisheries Service. Northwest 



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