It’ll Be One Whale of a Weekend

For the science-minded, there will be a mock-up of a whale’s belly. For lovers of the arts, whale music will drift from the decks of a square-rigger. For the just plain hungry, there’ll be pancakes in the shape of--yep--whales.

It’s all part of the 15th annual Festival of the Whales beginning Saturday for the next four weekends in Dana Point Harbor. While these and other events are going on in the harbor, California gray whales will be moving down the coast, some of them just a couple of hundred yards offshore, on one leg of their yearly 12,000-mile round-trip migration between the cold Bering Sea of Alaska and the warm lagoons of Baja California.

It is in honor of these 30- and 40-ton leviathans and their calves that the festival is held each year, giving the public a

chance to see and learn about the gentle seafaring mammals. Sponsored by the Dana Point Harbor Assn., the four weekends of the festival are expected to attract an estimated 80,000 visitors through March 8.

Institute Site of Activity

The Orange County Marine Institute, at the western end of the harbor, will host much of the activity, beginning on opening day with a marine mammal art exhibit and lectures on gray whale physiology. Walks through the Belly of the Whale exhibit also will be at the institute.

The pancake breakfast will be held Sunday at the nearby Youth and Group Facility, starting at 8 a.m.

At the other end of the harbor, in Doheny State Beach, there will be guided marsh walks exploring habitats of birds and other creatures of the coastal zone.

On Feb. 22, starting at 6 p.m., the Capistrano Valley Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Donn Laurence Mills, will perform original music about whales from the deck of the brig Pilgrim, anchored a few yards off the dock at the institute. If the weather is rainy, the program will be held March 1.

Sand Sculptures

Other features of the weekend programs will include sand sculpturing at Doheny State Beach, tours and rides on Navy patrol boats, lectures and symposiums on marine life, including a presentation by Karin Wyman, curator of Friends of the Sea Lion in Laguna Beach, and tours of the tall ship Pilgrim.

Whale-watching cruises will depart from Dana Wharf Sportfishing docks at the harbor’s east end every hour on the hour starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 4 p.m. each day of the festival. The regular weekday cruises also will be made at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m.