I saw seven gray whales on Sunday.

It is widely believed that the gray whale migration in our area ends in late March or early April, but the truth is that grays pass by our shores through May and occasionally into June. Most local whale watching ceases after the first week of April because usually the numbers of migrating whales drop off, but also because most whale watching boats return to their main occupation, sport fishing. Every year is different and this year the gray whale migration is a little late, which means there more animals being seen than most years. Add to that the fin and minke whales that can be spotted in the general area year round, the humpback whales that are also migrating north right now, a possible early blue whale or two (one was seen off San Diego on Saturday), and the ever present dolphins, and you still have a pretty excuse to go out on the ocean.

Diane and I assisted whale researcher Dr. Lei Lani Stelle from the University of Redlands who conducted an EarthWatch excursion in San Pedro over the weekend. Participants learned how to collect travelling and human interaction data and identification photos from boats, respiration rate data from shore, and scientific data entry and photo ID matching at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. They also spent some time at outer Cabrillo Beach observing bottlenose dolphins for Diane Alps' Project Dol-FIN.

On Sunday morning we boarded the “Pacific Spirit” in Ports O’Call Village and headed out in search of whales. We soon spotted a gray whale a little over a mile off Point Fermin, headed up the coast. At least initially we thought it was one whale. It wasn’t until a good half hour later when two whales surfaced at the same time that our suspicions were confirmed that we were actually following two whales who were taking turns at the surface. Normally, gray whales have very distinctive color patterns and markings, making it fairly easy to distinguish individuals. In this case however, the two whales had pretty similar markings, contributing to our confusion.

On the way back to port, we passed another gray whale that was following about a couple of miles behind the other two.

After the trip, half of our group went out to Point Vicente to watch for gray whales from shore, while the rest of us alternated between data entry and photo ID work in the CMA library and time near the County Lifeguard Headquarters looking for dolphins. It was while at the beach that we spotted two more gray whales headed up the coast, followed about an hour later by two more. And we also had a nice observation of a pod of six bottlenose dolphins that swam past Cabrillo Beach from West to East and then seemed to retreat when a group of swimmers entered the water.

It was a gorgeous day in Southern California and seeing seven gray whales made it all the more special.

The “Voyager” out of Redondo Beach Marina will be conducting two whale watching trips a day until the end of April, weather permitting and as long as there is enough interest, http://www.voyagerexcursions.com/.