Two decades ago, Jim Serpa, then supervising ranger at Doheny State Beach, decided a cool way to educate people about the whales passing offshore was to make them life-sized on land so people could truly understand their scope and size.
So the Whale Walk was painted on the beach’s boardwalk and, over the years, all kinds of species have been introduced to the public, starting in 1995 with a 100-foot blue whale.
On Saturday, during the second day of Dana Point’s 53rd Festival of Whales, Serpa, along with marine science students from San Clemente High School and students and professors from Cal State Long Beach and other volunteers, will be painting a variety of the life-sized whales along a new promenade in the North Day Use area of the park between the beach and the picnic area.
Eventually, the entire area between San Juan Creek and the Dana Point Harbor jetty will feature the series of life-sized whales. The state beach walkway will also connect to a new promenade that will run through the harbor next to the marina all the way to Baby Beach once the landside redevelopment is complete.
The whale images – which disappeared in 2020 when the state beach upgraded its boardwalk – have already been stenciled in place. There’s a humpback, a mom gray whale and her calf, a sperm whale battling a giant squid, and an orca.
“People love them. So many people stopped by while we were drawing them,” Serpa said about the time spent stenciling in the whales before this weekend’s painting party. “It had to be 100 – makes me feel good that people care and want to learn.
“Education is the name of the game,” he said. “If people don’t know about it, they don’t care about it.”
He’s especially jazzed the painting will coincide with the Festival of Whales, an annual celebration of the gray whale migration that passes Dana Point and also helps fuel the harbor’s whale-watching businesses. The three-day event, which includes a signature parade,…
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