1st Week of the Whale to Open With a Splash

For 18 years, Glenn Allen has witnessed the fragility and strength of undersea life, from witnessing the death of a mother whale and her calf in a fisherman’s gill net to playing with a juvenile whale by the name of Moby.

On Sunday, the 37-year-old Santa Barbara resident and his partners, Tom and Karina Fitz, will give a presentation on whales and other sea creatures as part of the inaugural Week of the Whale, sponsored by the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

The festival begins Saturday on lower State Street to Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara, featuring adult and children’s activities that highlight the migration of gray whales through the Santa Barbara Channel and the marine sanctuary, which includes five of the eight Channel Islands: Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara.

In addition, participants will be able to view photographs and videotape of whales, dolphins and other marine life. There will be a five-day series of films at the museum, beginning Saturday.

On Sunday, Allen will show videotape footage from a trip he and Tom Fitz took to Patagonia to film southern right whales for the Tokyo Broadcasting System.

“The southern right whale had the unique situation of being very friendly to boats in the early days of whaling,” Allen said. That made them easy targets.

“They were just as friendly with us when we were taping them. So much so that our second day out, I had an experience with an albino juvenile southern right whale, which we nicknamed Moby. He approached me and just kept coming and coming and coming, and actually rammed me. Not aggressively. He just pushed me around and had a great time.”

While Moby made for a fun experience, not all of the incidents Allen and Fitz documented have been so uplifting.

“We experienced two gray whales this summer, caught dead in a gill net off the shore of Santa Barbara. It had a great impact on us,” Allen said. “We jumped on the opportunity to film it for the British Broadcasting Co.’s ‘A Whale’s Voyage’ story.”

Fitz, 38, and wife Karina, 27, will show clips from their BBC production “The Dolphin Diaries,” which includes a presentation by Karina on Atlantic spotted and bottlenose dolphins.

“You are in for natural behavior of the dolphins you’re not expecting. They have a playful side to them. But they are very tough, and they are very violent at times,” Fitz said.

Tickets for the film series, which benefits the Whale Corps, will be sold at the museum. Member prices are $2 for children, $4 for adults; nonmembers, $3 for children and $5 for adults. All presentations begin at 7 p.m.

The museum is at 2559 Cuesta del Sol Road. Call 682-4711.