Newport Beach – Video captured on Saturday, January 10th, shows a gray whale mother swimming alongside her newborn calf during the annual migration season.

Passengers aboard whale watching boats along the coast observed multiple migrating gray whales this week as the animals traveled from their feeding groups in Alaska toward their calving grounds in Mexico.

This period marks the time of year when mother gray whales give birth while moving south toward the warm, salty calving lagoons along Baja Mexico, where the species raises its young.

Gray whales typically give birth between December and January, often while still on the migration route to the lagoons. Newborn calves measure about 12 to 15 feet in length and weigh roughly 2,400 pounds at birth.

During their first year, gray whale calves gain around 30 pounds per day and grow approximately one foot each month as they develop alongside their mothers.

Along the coast of Newport Beach, migrating gray whale mothers and calves are usually seen from late December through February. The broader gray whale migration continues through May as both southbound and northbound whales travel between Alaska and the protected lagoons in Mexico.

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