A West Coast Boater's Whale-Watching Guide

Whales are the largest creatures to inhabit the earth, as Jacques Cousteau told us, and among the most powerful, intelligent, far-ranging, and majestic. As boaters, what a remarkable opportunity we have to experience whales swimming free in the ocean. Winter is the peak period for whale watching along the Pacific Coast. California gray whales (eschrichtius robustus) in the Eastern Pacific number about 18,000, with another 6,000 located off Japan. Grays are by far the most frequently spotted whales off the U.S. West Coast, by a factor of 10. But also look for other species, including blue, fin, North Pacific right, orca, sperm, humpback, and minke whales — all in different locations and times.

Grays have one of the planet's longest migrations. Whether traveling alone or in pods of up to 12 adults and calves, they swim about 12,400 miles on their round-trip journey from their summer feeding grounds in Alaska's chilly Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea to their winter playgrounds in Mexico's warm, shallow lagoons and back. Parts of their migration route brings them close to California shores — first while they're southbound in winter (mid-December through early February), and again when they're northbound in spring (March to mid-April).

Where And How To See Them

Nobody's crystal ball guarantees where you can see a whale on a particular day. Commercial whale-watching charter boats operate out of many West Coast ports, taking passengers out on half- or whole-day trips, depending on how far out the whales will be. In northwest Washington, it's all about the orcas. Oregon has a small group of resident grays, most easily seen off Depot Bay. In the San Francisco area, grays migrate close to Point Reyes National Seashore and the nearby Farallon Islands in late December and early January. Also, long-range whale-watching expeditions into Mexico's national marine parks are increasingly popular.

Boaters must operate cautiously in the presence of whales, obeying the federal rules by not getting too close to the whales, by not harassing them, and by not endangering them or people. Note that a perimeter of 100 yards (300 feet) is as close as any boaters are allowed to get — even kayaks.

Gray Behavior

Grays are mammals that must breathe air on the surface. After two or three separate inhalations and exhalations (visible spouts), the adult grays often dive and swim submerged for five or six minutes, surfacing for air farther along their desired path. Grays are baleen feeders: they filter small invertebrates within sediment from the sea floor through coarse baleen plates inside their massive lower jaw. To eat, adult grays roll on their sides and swim along the bottom while scooping in large mouthfuls, then forcefully eject the material through their baleen filters, straining out the food they need.

Fast Females, Faster Males

Pods of female grays usually travel at four to six knots when southbound from Alaska, slowing to feed primarily between Monterey and San Diego. Why? The Monterey Submarine Canyon pushes deepwater nutrients up onto shallow coastal shelves, so it's easier and more efficient for whales to feed here. Similar upwellings occur in the broader Channel Islands Shelf off Southern California. This is why gray whales in these two regions can be seen swimming slowly at three or four knots or meandering in circles near shore. Marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Birch Aquarium, at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, study the grays' behavior while they accompany the many half- and whole-day boat trips.

The bigger reason southbound females are in such a hurry is that many are pregnant, and they're anxious to reach such safe calving grounds in Mexico as the San Ignacio Lagoon National Whale Preserve in Baja. For centuries, grays have been returning here to mate one winter, then give birth here two winters later. Sometimes a calf that was born early will travel with its mother in the female pod, needing to stop and nurse along the way. This temporarily slows the female pod before it can speed up again. With the maternal clock ticking, they can't slow down much. These warm, shallow, super-salty lagoons ease the cow's birth process — babies are 15 feet long! — and help the newborn calf — 2,000 pounds at birth — stay afloat more easily as it nurses and learns to swim.

Pods of young male grays travel south faster — about eight knots — and often stay a bit farther offshore than the females, though they may all belong to family groups. Older bulls are largest and usually travel alone, aloof from even male pods. But some older bulls are thought to act as protectors during migration and may communicate dangers to other whales.

Unencumbered, the larger males have no trouble swimming faster and diving to feed on deeper spots on the ocean floor. Males arrive at the mouths of the Mexican lagoons before the females and congregate just outside to greet female grays, especially those not yet pregnant.

The San Ignacio Lagoon Whale Preserve in Mexico is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it's the closest whale park to the U.S. border. Park-ranger and naturalist guides have been well trained to international standards. Only a limited number of visitors are allowed inside the park at a time. You can board one of the 18-foot skiffs, called "pangas," operated by the park's certified guides who take you whale watching in Ojo de Liebre, the northern part of the park off Mexico's Bay of Vizcaino. The other park entrance is by sea near Abreojos, where the whales enter Laguna San Ignacio. Boaters in oceangoing vessels or RVs can anchor or park at Abreojos village and book a whale-watching trip inside the lagoon. Start early in the day, before the wind picks up in the lagoons, and prepare to spend all day observing whales until an hour before sunset.

Precious Birthing Zones

Pregnant female grays about to give birth enter the mouth of the lagoons near Guerrero Negro and Abreojos and immediately seek out the shallowest sandy coves and remote corners. Here, in these special birthing zones, they rest from the long migration and wait for their babies to emerge. Hourly, park guides keep informed by VHF about birthing zones in use so they can take you there without stressing the whales. The first calves to be born have the advantage of spending more weeks nursing on the mother's rich milk and gaining confidence within the safety of the lagoon before they all begin the northward migration. Calves born late in the season sometimes don't survive the perilous migration to Alaska.

"The large concentration of gray whales that reside here each winter are extremely friendly and regularly approach our small pangas in a moving display that occurs nowhere else," says Brian Hutchinson, the Oceanic Society's director of outreach. "Friendlies" are what the park guides call the many mothers who've learned that it's safe to glide right up to the pangas and lift their barnacle-encrusted heads up to inspect the humans leaning over the sides of the boats.

Whales In Love

Meanwhile, whale courting displays and mating rituals are visible in the clear, calm, turquoise waters in the lagoons. Two or more males may pursue and gently surround a female that seems receptive. For days the males cavort flirtatiously, extending a fluke or nose to embrace or nuzzle the female. According to whale guide Jose Arriaga, gray males show patience, as a willing female takes her time selecting a single mate. One mating per winter often does the trick. Once a couple mates, they play near each other for the rest of their winter sojourn in the tropical lagoon.

In March, The Northbound Exodus Begins

The warm lagoons don't provide much feeding opportunity for adult grays, so they lose weight during their stay. Males and females without calves leave first. Some years, hunger draws the migration farther offshore, leading them more directly back to the Bering Sea feeding ground and making the northbound whale-watching season along California less distinct, at least for grays. Orcas are the only serious predator of grays, and pods of orcas often attack the more vulnerable baby grays during their northward migration. The other common dangers are long-line and drift fishing nets. Whale-rescue organizations are kept busy trying to save entangled whales spotted in coastal waters. Those caught farther out aren't so fortunate.

Look! More Whales!

In California's Monterey Bay, boaters can see — sometimes from shore — orcas, humpbacks, and blues when they come to feed above the Monterey Submarine Canyon. In Washington, whale watching typically focuses on orcas, the dramatic black-and-white whale with a very tall dorsal fin. Orca watching runs between April and September, primarily at Lime Kiln Point State Park in the San Juan Islands, off northwestern Washington.

Orcas are hugely popular for whale watching and for scientific whale research. Perhaps the smartest whale species, they typically travel in family pods recognized by researchers as either transient or resident groups. Individual orcas are identified, given names, and their travels and behaviors recorded for decades. For information specific to orcas, visit the Whale Research Center.

Blue whales inhabit all the planet's oceans and communicate with their families by emitting and receiving low-frequency sound waves that reach across entire ocean basins. Although inaudible to humans, the voice of a blue easily travels between Hawaii and California. Think of blues as the planet's Global Singers. Feeding in summers in high latitudes, blues migrate to tropical waters in winter. They're seen off California and inside Mexico's lower Sea of Cortez.

Humpbacks visit the Hawaiian Islands by the tens of thousands each year from November through May, peaking from December through March. The 45-ton marine humpbacks like to congregate in the 600-foot depths around the Hawaiian Islands, which are surrounded by much deeper waters. As they leap high into the air and splash back thunderously, their incredible acrobatics thrill boaters lucky enough to be out there for the show.