Photographic Identification is one of the most powerful and useful tools used to research and understand gray whale movements, life histories, and behavior. The re-identification of individual whales over time provides information on the number of times a whale returns to the winter aggregation areas and lagoon in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Comparison of digital images from Laguna San Ignacio or Bahía Magdalena with images from other locations in the gray whales' range provides information about the whale’s migrations and movements within their range.
Our Gray Whale Research in Mexico program posts on this website Photo-ID catalogs of gray whales from Laguna San Ignacio, Bahía Magdalena and other areas in Baja California to make them available to other gray whale researchers for comparison with photographs taken at their research sites. If you believe you have a photograph that matches a whale in our catalogs, please go to the “Contact Us” page on our website and send us an email. We will be able to confirm the match and provide information on the specific whale.
You can search, view, and download last year's catalog and archived catalogs from previous years beginning in 2006 at the links below...