Whale Watching at the Point Arena Lighthouse

The Point Arena Lighthouse joins in the Mendocino Coast Whale Festival events with its Whale Watch at the Lighthouse event on Saturday, March 28 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study founders Scott and Tree Mercer will be on hand with an information table and viewing stand. Scott and Tree have years of experience watching and counting the marine mammals that visit the Mendocino coast and have participated in the statewide whale census for the last 12 years, providing yearly counts of the whale migrations along the coast. There will be binoculars available for guests to view the north bound gray whales passing by the Lighthouse on their way to their summer feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi seas. According to the Mercers a great deal of concern surrounds the overall number, distribution, and health of one of the most iconic species often seen along the Pacific Coast, the beloved gray whale. This concern is shared by marine biologists, whale researchers, and citizens alike as the gray whale population has declined by over 50% in the past nine years. The Mercers can explain the critical link between this disturbing trend in population and the rapidly changing Arctic and sub-Arctic environment in which they feed. They can also share their observations and the southbound and northbound counts of migrating gray whales that they have collected over the past 12 years from various locations along the Mendonoma Coast. The Mercers are familiar landmarks on the Lighthouse peninsula outside the Light Station gates year round, but particularly from around December through June each year when the gray whale migration occurs. In 2014 they founded the Mendonoma Whale and Seal Study to document the occurrence, diversity, and behavior of marine mammals along the coast from Northern Sonoma County to Southern Mendocino County. They present their data and findings at many local and international conferences. In 2021, the Mercers were featured in an extensive article in the Los Angeles Times about the Unusual Mortality Event of gray whales. In 2022 they were included in a documentary film about gray whale research created by the UC Berkeley Department of Graduate Journalism. For more information on the Mendocino Coast Whale Festival visit the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce website MendocinoCoast.com/mendocino-whale-festival or the Visit Mendocino event calendar VisitMendocino.com. For more information about events at the Point Arena Lighthouse visit PointArenaLighthouse.com/visit or call 707-882-2809, ext. 1.