Brooke Burnett had the rare opportunity to see a gray whale near the shore on Nov. 26 near Redondo Beach. She lives in Des Moines, but said she frequents Federal Way almost daily.
In a video she shared online, the whale can be seen about 10 feet from the boardwalk, its whole body visible under the water.
“Our best friend is a garbage man and he happened to see the whale while on his route,” Burnett told the Mirror. “Knowing that I lived right up the hill, he called me and said ‘get down to the boardwalk!’”
Burnett was with her 5-year-old daughter who got to join in on the special experience. They are frequently at the beach, so Burnett said “she has seen a lot of variety, but a whale close to shore was new and amazing.”
Whale experts at the Orca Network say the whale is most likely a juvenile and is most likely not in great health. Serena Tierra of the Whale Sighting Network Team said that when people hear about a starving whale, their first question is usually, “how can we intervene to get the whale healthy again?”
Because of the whale’s feeding style, it’s not that simple.
“There’s not much that we can do, we can’t feed them,” Tierra said. “They’re benthic feeders, so they feed at the bottom of the ocean and usually stir up sediment and eat animals that are in there.”
“The best way people can help is by reporting sightings to us if they happen to see the whale,” Tierra said, adding that people should stay at least 100 feet away if they are in the water and reduce their speed to 7 knots or below if on a boat.
Sightings of whales can be submitted at www.orcanetwork.org/report-sightings. If a stranded whale is ever spotted, that should be reported to NOAA here or by calling 1-866-767-6114.
“What we’re doing right now is just monitoring the whale, so we communicate with Cascadia research, which is another organization based in Olympia that does a lot of work with our gray whales, so we’ve been sending them reports and also sharing with NOAA,” Tierra said.
When a gray whale is spotted this far South in the Puget Sound, they are usually stragglers, rather than being a member of the group referred to as the “Sounders” who stop by the Puget Sound each year. Stragglers are “usually ones that don’t know the area as well and don’t really know where to find food,” Tierra said.
The Sounders group of gray whales typically stop by the region on their northbound migration toward the Bering Sea near Alaska. They are coming from warmer waters in Mexico where they go each year to breed. Gray whales have the longest migration of any mammal, Tierra said.
The Sounders group return to the Puget Sound typically in January or February, so seeing a gray whale this far south and this early is unusual, although not unheard of. Last year, Tierra said they saw a juvenile gray whale show up in the Puget Sound at the beginning of December.
The gray whale population overall was experiencing an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) that NOAA tracked as starting in 2019. This means they were tracking an unusual number of whale strandings. This “does appear to be getting better” this year and that UME ended in 2023, she said.
For Burnett, seeing the whale with her daughter was an exciting experience that joins a collection of nature memories she’s been working to cultivate.
While the experience was exciting, she said: “Every time we go to the beach we see something special. I am so thankful that I get to share that with both my kids.”
Burnett shares many of these experiences on her social media, especially those related to foraging.
“Foraging is something that I became interested in about 5 years ago and it truly is the most fascinating hobby. Mushrooms specifically,” Burnett said. “Living in the PNW there is literally an endless amount of things to explore, discover and forage. Having kids now, it is so important to me to incorporate nature into their lives. My closest friends know that I’m a nature nerd through and through.”
Her favorite picks for special nature experiences in Federal Way is Dash Point State Park because of the variety and the “pretty big trail network.” Burnett said her other favorite local places are Black Diamond, Port Orchard and Gig Harbor.”
Redondo Beach also offers a guaranteed chance to see interesting marine life. The MaST Center Aquarium is located at 28203 Redondo Beach Drive South in Des Moines and holds over 3,000 gallons of water in various tanks, according to their website. “It features 2 large touch tanks, an Octopus tank, a schooling fish tank, and more. In all, the aquarium houses over 250 species of marine creatures, all native to the Puget Sound and surrounding waters,” and “Divers of the MaST Center frequently go on collecting trips, so there is always something new to see.”
For Burnett, sharing these experiences online provides a chance to connect with others but also to learn. In her original video she identified the whale as a humpback, but through comments on it learned that it was actually a gray whale.
For those who want to have more of these type of nature experiences of their own, Burnett said “I would encourage everyone to get outside, slow down and pay attention to the little details. You’ll see a lot of stuff you never knew was there when you’re in a rush.”
