A photographer on Saturday captured aerial footage showing a gray whale passing between surfers and the shoreline in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County.
Dominik Granados stated via Instagram: “We got the report of a whale milling at 40th St. [in Manhattan Beach] and got down quick enough to not miss it. We spotted it just south of MB pier and [the whale] passed through north Hermosa [Beach] super shallow until it veered out at Hermosa pier.”
Gray whale greets surfers.
Gray whales are currently migrating from feeding grounds off Alaska to nursing and calving regions along Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula.
ALSO: Deep Blue, largest great white shark ever documented, back in spotlight
It’s not rare to spot gray whales from shore, but it’s uncommon for them to be so close to the beach during their southbound migration. (Note the presence of bottlenose dolphins near the whale in the footage.)
Alisa Schulman-Janiger, director of the ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project in Palos Verdes, said the whale was spotted by Census volunteer Jean Huber, who lives in Manhattan Beach, at 7:30 a.m.
She alerted the Census team in Palos Verdes, and the whale passed the Census viewing patio at 11:15 a.m., a quarter-mile from shore.
The ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior project is in its 42nd year.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Gray whale passes between surfers and shore off Southern California