An integral part of whale watching, Capt. Rick Podolak explained as we zipped out of North San Diego Bay past Point Loma, is establishing trust.<\/p>\n
That and a fast vessel, good timing and luck. All of which we hoped would align during a whale-watching excursion in late December, the month typically inaugurating an annual gray whale migration from the Arctic south to Baja California.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call them our Christmas whales,\u201d said Podolak, of Adventure Whale Watching<\/a>.<\/p>\n Grays endure an epic roundtrip journey of 10,000 miles or more, and California holds a prime seat through May. Along with being a migratory route for grays and humpbacks, this stretch of Pacific Coast from San Diego to beyond the Bay Area offers seasonal feeding grounds that attract a variety of whale species throughout the year.<\/p>\n \u201cI would go so far as to boast that California has some of the best whale watching in the world,\u201d said Ted Cheeseman, a Santa Cruz whale researcher and co-founder of Happywhale,<\/a> a photo-based whale identification platform.<\/p>\n Tempering the enthusiasm Cheeseman and other researchers hold around current thriving whale populations are significant concerns about gray whales dying. Grays\u2019 numbers along the Pacific Coast have plunged by half in the last decade, to about 13,000, due to climate change affecting their Arctic food supply.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year was by far the lowest count we\u2019ve ever had, and this year is even lower,\u201d said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a marine biologist and whale researcher who coordinates an annual gray whale census<\/a> out of Rancho Palos Verdes. <\/p>\n In December 2025, volunteers spotted 14 whales headed south to calving lagoons in Mexico. In December 2024, they counted 33. In December 2014, by comparison, there were 393.<\/p>\n With numbers like those rattling in my head and the clock ticking as Podolak piloted us north along the coastline, I grew increasingly doubtful about us witnessing the grays\u2019 movement south. We were looking for backs or flukes (tails) breaking the water. Most telling is the spout \u2014 the condensed mass of water vapor and mucus that whales force from their blowholes as they surface.<\/p>\n After 90 minutes, we\u2019d spied cormorants and pelicans galore, but little else. It was nearly time to head back.<\/p>\n Then, there it was. A spout, rising clearly against the coastline. Then another, just before the whale dove from sight. The captain identified it as a gray whale, with their distinct white patches of clinging barnacles.<\/p>\n This month, California tour operators have reported several gray sightings. As we watch for them and other cetaceans, this is one instance in which tourists can create positive change. Advocacy organizations<\/a> outline how to select ethical tour operators and federal agencies <\/a>are charged with maintaining safe distances (100 yards for most whale species) between vessels and marine mammals. Whale researcher Cheeseman says well-managed whale tourism raises public awareness and financially supports whale science and conservation.<\/p>\n \u201cFor some people, seeing a blue whale in the Santa Barbara Channel checks a box \u2014 it\u2019s an Instagram post,\u201d he said. \u201cFor others, it entirely transforms their view of the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides the winter gray whale migration, in summer and fall, San Diego\u2019s waters are home to massive blue whales, humpbacks, fin whales, minke whales, occasional orcas and several dolphin species. When you\u2019re not out on the water, the San Diego area beckons as a recreational playground, with its renowned zoo<\/a> and parks, and coastal accommodations like the timeless and elegant Lodge at Torrey Pines,<\/a> set on a golf course overlooking the Pacific.<\/p>\n Moving north from San Diego, here are some of California\u2019s other leading whale-watching spots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An integral part of whale watching, Capt. Rick Podolak explained as we zipped out of North San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":551536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,76934,1582,276,15702,241999,26087,58792,233875,241996,3549,7264,242000,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,527,31918,241997,241998,1628],"class_list":["post-551535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-blue-whale","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-coast","tag-fast-vessel","tag-gray","tag-humpback","tag-late-december","tag-rick-podolak","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-spout","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-water","tag-whale","tag-whale-researcher","tag-whale-specie","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115978375277072091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}