Keeping an Eye on Whales as They Migrate

Birds do it. Bees don’t. Whales do and everyone is watching.

Watching them migrate, that is.

Like clockwork, Pacific gray whales, those hulking gypsies of the sea, come bobbing along the coast of Southern California, headed from the chilly seas of Alaska to the blissfully warm waters of Mexico’s Baja California.

Just as the whales appear, so do the faithful American Cetacean Society census-takers. They unfold their canvas chairs, dust off their powerful binoculars and patiently take turns sitting from sunup to sundown each day for five months to count the gray whales swimming past the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The volunteers’ vigil began Dec. 1. It won’t end until the first week of May. So far, they have counted more than 182 gray whales. They hope to see between 1,100 and 2,000 by mid-spring. Peak whale-watching is late February to early March.

“The first time I did this it amazed the heck out of me,” said Hugh Ryono, a photo-imaging instructor in Irvine who since 1989 has spent his spare time scrutinizing the steely blue-gray waters off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. “I had to come back.”

Joan Venette, a retired nurse who has been counting whales for more than a decade, appears on the observation deck of the interpretive center just after dawn, come rain, shine, blustery winds or horrible storms. She is joined by other whale watchers and curious tourists.

“I liken it to the fisherman waiting for a big bite,” she said, explaining how she has the patience to watch for hours on end, sometimes seeing no whales all day.

The Gray Whale Census Project, begun in 1978, is directed by Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a marine biology teacher at San Pedro High School. It is the only one of its kind in Southern California, she said.

The purpose of the census is not to count every gray whale in the ocean, but to gather scientific data about their behavior--where they swim, when they migrate, how close to shore they travel, how many calves swim with their mothers.

Schulman-Janiger said this information was instrumental when legislation was being drafted in the late 1980s to restrict gill-net fishing. The danger to gray whales was cited by sponsors of a successful 1990 state referendum that banned gill-net fishing within three miles of shore.

“You don’t know how a species is impacted by something unless you know what it was and how it acted before,” she said. “So you need to collect baseline data.”

Over the years, observers have found that fewer whales are spotted on their southbound journey because they swim farther out to sea, coasting on a 3-knot current south of San Nicolas Island and west of Santa Catalina Island.

But on their northward route, they swim close to the California coastline, catching another current that eases their journey home on the last leg of their 12,000-mile round-trip.

Last year, census takers saw 706 southbound and 993 northbound gray whales. Peak days for going south were Jan. 12 and Feb. 2, when 27 gray whales were seen each day.

On the return trip, peak days were March 14 and March 19, when 45 whales were seen each day.

Decades ago, there were hardly any whales to be seen. In the 1930s, the gray whale became practically extinct, its population dwindling to less than a 1,000 after decades of commercial whaling.

Commercial hunting of gray whales was halted in 1946, but not in time to save a related strain of gray whales that had lived off the coast of Korea.

In the late 1960s, when intense study of the gray whale began, scientists believed that the numbers had grown back to 11,000. Nonetheless, the Pacific gray whale was placed on the endangered species list in the 1970s. Today, it is believed there are between 22,000 to 24,000 Pacific gray whales.

Due in part to the census takers, the gray whale was taken off the endangered species list in 1994, making it the first marine creature to be delisted. But it still remains under the jurisdiction of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which bans hunting of gray whales in U.S. waters.

The whales’ annual journey from Alaska to Mexico is an odyssey that has fascinated humankind for centuries. The sea-bound mammals leave their feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi seas and begin their two- to three-month journey to Baja California, where they bear their young in the calm, warm lagoons off the Mexican coast.

The whales stay in Baja California for another two to three months before beginning their trip home, past California and the ever-observant eyes of scores of census-taking volunteers.

The census was started in 1978 by John Olguin, former director of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, and Bill Samaras, a retired marine biology teacher at Carson High School.

The American Cetacean Society and scientists wanted a better grasp on the Pacific gray whale population because Japanese whalers were talking about hunting it again. “We had some data from their passage through the Aleutian Islands. In Northern California, there was a count off and on. So we decided we should see what was coming on down here,” Samaras said.

In December 1978, volunteers set up their chairs at the old Marineland in Rancho Palos Verdes and made their first count.

This is the project’s 13th consecutive season, a tradition kept alive by volunteers such as Jud Goodspeed, a retired TWA pilot, who shows up precisely at noon every day and stays until 5 p.m.

Goodspeed is more than well-prepared. His clothing will take him to 60 degrees below zero. He also has a guest book for tourists to sign.

If the weather becomes too bad, Goodspeed and other volunteers can watch the whales from an observation tower inside the interpretive center. But most volunteers prefer to stay outside where the view is better.

They wait for that one moment that gets their hearts racing, such as the recent morning when five pairs of binoculars zeroed in on three gray whales swimming gracefully together through the ocean.

Nancy De Long was the first to see them. “Look at that splash!” she shouted.

“They’re getting closer!” Hugh Ryono exclaimed. The three whales simultaneously blew water through their spouts as they passed by.

“Oh, beautiful,” Stephanie Bryan sighed.

This was the moment they had been waiting for. There will be many more like these.

The American Cetacean Society is looking for volunteers to count gray whales at Point Vicente Interpretive Center. An orientation will be held for new volunteers from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Jan. 12 at the center, 31501 Palos Verdes Drive West. For more information, call Alisa Schulman-Janiger after Monday, (310) 519-8963.