By Dave Schwab
January brings rain and cooler temperatures as well as the seasonal grey whale migration along the San Diego coast, which can be captured by locals and visitors alike taking boats or even kayaks.
Since 1935, Sportfishing specialists H&M Landing at 2803 Emerson St. in Point Loma have been escorting passengers to their destination, whether that be fishing in the La Jolla kelp beds or glimpsing migrating whales offshore.
“We’ve been doing three-hour whale watching tours since 1956 in our 80-foot boats with seating inside and out and a full galley departing twice daily at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.,” said Katrina Coleman, H&M spokeswoman.
Coleman said whale watching excursions are $20 per person Mondays and Tuesdays, $45 a head the rest of the week with fare discounts for seniors, the military and children.
Whale watching started early this year.
“We’ve been sighting quite a few grey whales coming down, as well as common dolphins and sea lions,” Coleman said noting H&M’s whaling-watching captain, Scott McCandliss, gives a well-versed narration on the leviathans, having previously worked on boats at Scammons Lagoon in Baja, California where whales spawn. Greys are baleen whales that migrate annually between feeding and breeding grounds which can can grow to be 49 feet long and weigh 36 tons while living 55 to 70 years. The whale feeds mainly on crustaceans from the sea floor. Each October, small groups of greys in the eastern Pacific start a two- to three-month, 5,000- to 6,800-mile trip south, believed to be the longest annual migration of any mammal traveling along the west coast of Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Traveling non-stop, the gray whale averages about 75 miles per day. By late December to early January, grays begin to arrive in the calving lagoons of Baja. By mid-February to mid-March, the bulk of the population has arrived in the lagoons, filling them with nursing, calving and mating gray whales.
Those who prefer to view whales closer up and more personal, can do so by kayak renting them from institutions like Everyday California at 2246 Avenida De La Playa in La Jolla Shores.
Why view whales from a kayak rather than a boat?
“It’s more environmentally conscious, not disturbing whales with noise pollution from (boat) engines, and you can get closer,” answered Steve Anderson, an Everyday tour guide who noted two guides typically host groups of 10 persons each on kayak tours paddling out for half an hour to cover the three miles needed to get out into the ocean pathways greys take migrating south.
Kayak whalewatching tours go out three times daily from 9-10:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. to noon and 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., said Anderson adding the cost is $40 per person.