Karen Krieger LaMont recently had the opportunity to get a photo of a grey whale passing by the Seal Beach Pier. Below, she describes the encounter. “My parents, John and Ellie Krieger, moved to Seal Beach in 1958,” she said. “Over the years they had four kids who went through Zoeter, McGaugh, and Huntington Beach High.
“Currently, I live in San Diego. When I come to visit, I join my mom on her daily walks in the morning around town. Whichever path we take, we arrive up at the pier between 7:30 to 8 a.m. and intersect other women who are daily walkers as well.
“We stayed longer to enjoy the weather and view. We like to watch the surfers. About 8:15 a.m., one of the surfers sitting on his board backed up quickly because something had passed directly in front and under him, so I continued to watch to see what it could be. He clearly was surprised and wondered what it was; others mentioned they thought it was a whale. It had passed in front of the line of surfers on the north side of pier and was approaching the sea wall and pier pilings.
“It surfaced with a small blow of water and passed by us several times as it went back and forth within about a 40 ft. stretch up and down the pier; surfacing and blow water. I guess it to be about 20 ft long – so it must have been young – you can tell it doesn’t have many barnacles on it from the photos. About 10 people on the pier were there to witness the whale and take photos. After about 15 minutes it disappeared. It was a great joy to see him.”
