A gray whale pops its head out to survey the surroundings in San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja Sur, Mexico. I encountered this whale while whale watching in Baja, Mexico. Gray whales have the longest known migration of any mammal. They travel 10,000-12,000 miles round trip every year between their winter calving lagoons in the warm waters of Mexico and their summer feeding grounds in the cold Arctic seas. About 10 percent of the whales in the lagoon seek human contact and will come up to idling pangas. We were fortunate enough to have personal encounters four of the five times we went out into the lagoon.