Tourists were pleased with all the whales, art and wine at the two-town Whale Festival this year. Organizers proclaimed the events a success, despite the departure of runners, walkers and parkers from last weekend”s fun in Fort Bragg.
The 2007 Fort Bragg Whale Festival on Saturday and Sunday was without one of its signature events, the Whale Run & Walk, which is now planned for early summer by the sponsoring Soroptimist Club.
The classic car show on Laurel Street, never officially part of the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce-sponsored festival in Fort Bragg, was canceled this year, reportedly after too many episodes of rain.
But other events, especially the Whales on Parade art show, drew lots of interest toward a festival more focused on both whales and the arts.
Whale watching boats had good-sized crowds as did MacKerricher State Park, for a robust schedule of fun sponsored by the Mendocino Area Parks Association, including a marine mammal story hour, whale walks, bird watching, a kite flying event and a whale-themed scavenger hunt.
The Saturday morning line for the Fort Bragg chowder tasting stretched from Town Hall almost to the Skunk Train Depot.
Despite fog and cool temperatures, there was little elbow room in Town Hall as tourists and locals alike gobbled the fragrant recipes. Heritage House won first place, with TW”s Grille & Bar second and North Coast Brewing third.
The Fort Bragg Rotary Club”s microbrew tasting at Eagles Hall was also packed.
Chamber CEO Debra DeGraw said the receipts from this year”s chowder tasting showed improvement from last year. One visible reason for the success was an increased presence this year in both Fort Bragg and in Mendocino March 2 and 3 by Chamber ambassadors, board members and staff. DeGraw thinks another big reason for the success is the second year of partnering with the Mendocino Arts Council.
There was a lot new at this year”s event, much of it whale-related. One surprise for festival guests was a big protest of the Iraq war downtown during the Fort Bragg festival Saturday.
About 80 people, many waving peace-themed signs, gathered on the lawn of the Guest House Museum, next door to Town Hall. To keep out of each other”s way, the line for the chowder tasting was kept to the north and the protest to the south, organizers said.
The coincidence of the two events gave Main Street in Fort Bragg the atmosphere of a block party with people gathered in a continuous bunch from the Company Store to The Restaurant. Craft fair signs mixed with peace signs. People in both groups saw the mixture as interesting and educational.
George Reinhardt, who provided the music for Whales on Parade where his entry sold on Sunday, felt Saturday”s protest was related to the festival and welcome at an event founded on environmental activism.
“The effect of war on the planet, and this war in particular, is one of the most important environmental issues our world faces today,” he said.
Marilyn Hobbs” fabric whale, made with batting, brought the top price of $550 at the silent auction. Susan Burke bought that one and won a $500 whale depicting an old world style relief map of the Mendocino Coast by Eva-Lena-Rehnmark-Stewart.
The really gigantic addition was the return to an emphasis on the whales themselves, which DeGraw said would continue to grow. Both the Mendocino and Fort Bragg festivals drew packed houses to eclectic films about whales.
A packed house at Evergreen United Methodist Church in Fort Bragg attended a Sunday afternoon film that was originally launched at IMAX theaters; “Whales: An Unforgettable Journey,” featuring dramatic video footage.
The history of the bond between locals and their whales was remembered in a grainy, funky film about the “Whale Wars” sponsored by KOZT-The Coast and the Chamber of Commerce during the Mendocino Whale Festival. The film documents the 1970s activism that launched the “declaration of war” on Japanese and Russian whaling and boycotts of products from those two countries — and the enduring festival.
At the “1st Annual Mendocino Whale Festival” in March 1976, it was all about whales. But back then there were fewer whales, not to mention far, far fewer tourists.
This year whales seemed to make themselves extra visible just offshore. More than 20,000 whales cruise by the Mendocino Coast on their migration between the Arctic and Baja California.
Gray whales are among the friendliest of whales, approaching humans even when calving in Baja California. This amiability cost them their lives by the tens of thousands, going from plentiful to the verge of extinction in just a few decades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Now, the American Pacific population of the barnacled gray giants has completely rebounded, scientists say. However, the Asian Pacific gray whale is nearly extinct, and all the gray whales in the Atlantic Ocean were exterminated.
