Science / Medicine : Whale-Watching Excursions Planned

It’s that time of year again . . . the annual migration of the California gray whales from the Bering Sea to Baja California is under way, with the whales passing close to the California coastline as they go.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has issued guidelines for whale watchers. Some of these include keeping a distance of at least 100 yards from any gray whale, never operating a vessel at speeds faster than the whale is traveling and never using a vessel to herd or drive whales. Aircraft should not fly lower than 1,000 feet while within a horizontal distance of 100 yards from a whale.

Several local organizations are offering tours and classes:

The Cabrillo Marine Museum and the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society will be leading the 19th year of Cabrillo Whalewatch trips. Led by specially trained naturalists, the 2 1/2-hour trips leave daily from local harbors through the end of March. Call (213) 832-4444.

Channel Islands National Park will have educational family programs about the whales Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. through the end of March at the park’s visitor center in Ventura. Call (805) 644-8262.

The Westside Arts Center will have a Whale Arts Festival under the carousel on the lower level of the Santa Monica Pier for children and their families to learn about the giant whales on March 9 from 2 to 4 p.m. Reservations are suggested. Call (213) 395-1443.

SCIENCE FOR KIDS

Young entomologists, ages 4 to 7, are being sought by Los Angeles Pierce College for a five-session workshop on identifying, caring for and learning about the lives of insects. Classes will be held Mondays at 4:30 p.m., beginning today, or Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m., beginning Wednesday. Call (818) 719-6425.

Stories of life in the animal kingdom will be the subject of a special family “Whales Tales” program featuring sign language and spoken word for both the hearing and hearing impaired at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. Call (213) 744-3335 or 744-3534.

Nurses, doctors, dentists and firefighters will be on hand to teach children the importance of personal safety and CPR (for children 10 and over) in a KidSafe program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on March 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. To preregister call (213) 855-5189.

HERPETOLOGY

The ecology of two types of desert snakes, the sidewinder and the coachwhip, will be discussed at the meeting of the Southwestern Herpetologists Society on March 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Reseda Recreation Center. Call (818) 780-5179.

NOBEL LAUREATES

Caltech will host a one-day scientific symposium on the chemical bond in honor of Linus Pauling on his 90th birthday Thursday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. in Beckman Auditorium on campus. Six Nobel laureates will speak, including Pauling. Call (818) 356-4652.

Francis Crick, who shared a Nobel Prize in 1962 for the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA, will discuss “Visual Awareness,” describing the complexities of sight, at the Leon Pape Memorial Lecture at Cal State Los Angeles on March 8 at 2 p.m. in the Physical Sciences Building, Room 158. Call (213) 343-2100.

MEDICINE/HEALTH

Issues in critical-care nursing, preventive health and crises in community health are among the subjects to be addressed at UCLA’s second national nursing conference March 8 and 9 at the Los Angeles International Airport Hyatt Hotel. Call (213) 825-6624.