Video by Rich Formica.
Thar she rainbows!
Local drone photographer Rich Formica captured this fabulous whale spraying a rainbow from its blowhole near Orick Sunday afternoon.
Local whale Biologist Jeff K Jacobsen told the Outpost via email today that the lovely leviathan in the video is a gray whale.
“It has been feeding on the bottom, [and] is expelling mud from its mouth while surfacing,” Jacobsen said. “It seems like a juvenile, though size often is hard to estimate.”
Jacobsen said that this whale belongs to a special group of grays that don’t migrate to Alaska during the summer.
“This gray whale has not migrated to Alaska with most of the population, rather is part of what is being called the Pacific Coast Feeding Group,” Jacobsen said. “About 200 whales stay between here and Vancouver Island all summer and fall, then head south to the lagoons in Baja California with the rest of the gang.”
We love you rainbow whale. Never leave us.