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Watch a gray whale breach.
 Gray whales can weigh 40 tons and stretch to more than 45 feet long, so
you’d think they’d be easy to spot. But there are no guarantees, even on
those popular whale-watching boats that take tourists out to meet the
whales off Dana Point, with airplanes and helicopters to guide them to
the right spots. Students from the Biology Department, who make an
annual trek, went whaleless for several seasons until the March 2004
excursion. Dan Holtzman ’06 was on that trip and recalls that the group
quickly encountered hundreds of dolphins, jumping and swimming
alongside.
After the boat turned back following a fruitless search, three whales
came into sight. The whales were breaching—that’s when they leap out of
the water and come down with a big splash. “I’m just incredibly glad I
went,” says Holtzman.
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