Many of these massive mammals are drawn to the Southern California waters for food. Upwellings of cold deep currents, full of shrimp and krill create an underwater buffet for whales of all kinds.

FROM RETIRED ELEPHANTS and chicken-eating seagulls to toothy raccoons and intrepid wolves, Alison Hawthorne Deming’s new poetry anthology gathers today’s most beloved poets to celebrate the intricate, ...