'Friendly' grey whales, mothers who bring their newborn calves to the side of small boats to be touched and scratched, entirely…'Friendly' grey whales, mothers who bring their newborn calves to the side of small boats to be touched and scratched, entirely on their own initiative. Sanctioned physical contact with a wild whale, in a lagoon so shallow and calm you see them from a mile off. Grey whales were hunted to near extinction in these lagoons in the 1850s, when whalers called them 'devil fish' for defending their calves. The friendly behaviour began in 1972 with a single whale that approached a fisherman's boat. Mexico made the lagoon a whale sanctuary and in 2000 defeated a planned industrial saltworks on its shore. Anchorage: Shallow, tidal lagoon with a difficult entrance bar, most visitors come overland; verify draft and pilotage. Hazards: No site-specific hazards noted, brief normally. More