WELCOME THE WHALES DAY APRIL 21
Welcome the Whales Day parade, festivities and presentations will be in Langley, Whidbey Island, on Saturday, April 21st from 10 - 5 pm
Orca Network, Homeplace Special Care, and the Langley Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring the ninth annual Welcome the Whales Day in Langley to honor and celebrate the arrival of resident gray whales to Whidbey Island.
11 am - Costume-making, Displays, Educational Activities (Methodist Church, 3rd and Anthes)
1 pm - Parade staging at US Bank parking lot (2nd and Anthes)
Parade at 1:30 - up Second Street and down 1st Street - come join us dressed as your favorite critter!
2 pm - Blessing for the whales by Windwalker Taibi, watching for whales from shore, music, and celebration (Waterfront park, 1st and Anthes)
3 pm - presentation by Dr. Bruce Mate on recent groundbreaking research on Western Gray whales' Migration (Methodist Church, 3rd and Anthes)
Take part in hands-on educational displays, activities and costume-making at the Methodist Church Fellowship Hall (3rd and Anthes St.), beginning at 11am. Staging for the "critter parade" begins at 1 pm at the US Bank parking lot on Anthes and 2nd street, across the street from the Church. The parade begins at 1:30, going up Second Street and down First Street, ending at the Langley Waterfront Park with a blessing for the whales by Windwalker Taibi, music, and celebration on the beach, while watching for Gray whales in Saratoga Passage.
From 3 - 5 pm presentations will be held back at the Methodist church, beginning with a short update on our local Gray whales by Orca Network. This year we are honored to have guest speaker Dr. Bruce Mate, Director and chair of the the Marine Mammal Institute, at Oregon State University, Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station in Newport, Oregon.
Dr. Mate will bring us up to date on the travels of Varvara, the Gray whale from waters around Russia, who visited all three birthing lagoons in Baja California this spring, and who continues providing satellite tracks following her travels north, traveling at an average of 100 miles per day. The week of April 1 - 8, Varvara migrated west from Kayak Island past Kodiak Island to False Pass, which is east of Unimak Pass. Both passes are used by eastern gray whales entering the Bering Sea. Varvara came through the Aleutian Islands farther to the west during the easterly portion of her winter migration.
Dr. Mate's research and tracking of the whales Varvara and Flex has changed what was formerly known about the Western Pacific Gray whale population, and how it might interact with the Eastern Pacific Gray whale population. Visit this website to follow Varvara's travels, and to learn more about this research, which was conducted by A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) and Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute.
Bruce has conducted marine mammal research since 1967, including determining the migration routes of sea lions along the west coast of the United States; a post doctorate in biochemistry investigating heavy metals and organochlorines in pinnipeds; marine mammal/fishing conflicts; and VHF telemetry studies of seals and gray whales. He has been a leader in the development of satellite-monitored radio telemetry for marine mammals, and conducts work on Blue whale critical habitat and calving areas, marine mammal conservation and management policy, marine mammal/fishery interactions, marine mammal strandings and public education.
Welcome the Whales Day is part of Whidbey Island's "Earth & Ocean Weekend", with Welcome the Whales Day on Saturday, and the Bayview Earth Day celebration on Sunday April 22 at the Bayview Cash Store hub.
To help welcome in the whales, Orca Network offers beautiful "Welcome the Whales" flags for your home, garden or business, featuring an illustration by Freeland artist Mary Jo Oxrieder of our favorite whale "Patch." Buy and hang your flag (or wear it in the parade) to help us Welcome the Whales to Whidbey! Flags are available for purchase at this link and will also be available for sale during the festival.
For more information, go to: www.orcanetwork.org/news/events.html and www.visitlangley.com or contact Orca Network at 360-678-3451 or info@orcanetwork.org; or the Langley Chamber of Commerce at 360-221-6765.
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See photos of past Welcome the Whales Days.
Click 2012 Welcome the Whales Days poster to view this year's poster. You can help by printing the poster and posting it on Whidbey Island.
Click HERE to learn all about gray whales, especially the Saratoga Grays that return every year to the Saratoga Passage off Whidbey Island.
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