While I did do a lot of cliché California activities during my July vacation—Disneyland, the Santa Monica Pier—the most unique thing I did was a whale watching tour. The main focus of this post will be on the tour, but I’ll include a slideshow at the end of my other activities.
History of whale watching
Even though it is called “whale” watching, this activity refers to the practice of observing any cetaceans, i.e., marine mammals of the order Cetacea that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
Organized whale watching started in the United States, when the Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego was declared a public venue for observing the migration of gray whales in 1950. The spectacle attracted 10,000 visitors in its first year; this popularity led to the first water-based whale watching in 1955. Over the following decade, the whale-watching industry spread throughout the western coast of the United States. | Chart showing marine mammals of the order Cetacea, which includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Image courtesy Animalia Life. |
While whale watching has increased support for the protection of cetaceans (e.g., the establishment of marine protected areas), the rapid increase in the number of whale-watching trips and vessel sizes has shown to significantly affect the biology and ecology of cetaceans (see the Effects of Whale Watching box below). Because of the huge variety of species and populations, no international standard set of regulations exists to regulate whale watching tours. However, common rules include:
- Minimize speed and noise
- Avoid sudden turns
- Do not pursue, encircle, or come in between whales
- Approach animals from angles from which they will not be taken by surprise
- Consider cumulative impact (e.g., minimize number of boats at any one time/per day)
- Do not coerce dolphins into bow-riding
A chapter in the book Whale-watching: Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management describes some of the short and long-term effects of whale watching on cetaceans.
Short-term effects
Whale-watching boats can drive some cetaceans to use vertical and/or horizontal avoidance. Vertical avoidance means cetaceans increase the depth and/or duration of their dives; horizontal avoidance means cetaceans increase their swimming speed and/or frequency of heading changes. Because the vertical and horizontal movement of cetaceans is closely related to the activity that cetaceans are engaged in (e.g. socializing animals spend more time close to the surface than when traveling), whale-watching boats can affect the activity state of cetaceans.
Long-term effects
As of 2013, only three studies have been able to show long-term effects of whale-watching on cetacean vital rates. Two of these studies identified a decrease in female reproductive success as the cause of the long-term effects. One resulted in a decrease in population size (Lusseau et al., 2006b) and the other in a shift in relative abundance between two areas (Bejder et al., 2006). Because cetaceans are long-lived and relatively hard to study, more studies are needed to understand how short-term behavioral effects of whale-watching activities translate into long-term biologically significant effects on individual vital rates and population dynamics.
When my friend said her dad would pay for us to take a whale watching tour, I was a bit hesitant. I had read a number of articles on the negative effects whale watching can have on cetaceans and didn’t want to do a tour that disregarded the animals’ well-being. I sent my friend some articles on what to look for in a scrupulous whale watching tour, and she found Capt. Dave's Dana Point Whale Watching.
Capt. Dave’s uses a small vessel that they slow down when nearing cetaceans, and they keep in contact with other boats to prevent too many boats clustering in one area. Additionally, they sponsor beach clean-ups, have rescued several whales entangled in fishing nets, and Capt. Dave is working on a new tracking buoy to locate entangled whales. Considering all this, I felt okay going on a whale watching tour with this company. Their complimentary Triple Fudge Brownies were a definite plus too.
We opted for the first tour of the morning to avoid the heat of a Cali afternoon. During the two-and-a-half-hour tour, we didn’t see any whales, but we did see three species of dolphins: the short-beaked common dolphin, the bottlenose dolphin, and the Risso’s dolphin. On the way back to the dock, we also got to see some of the famous Dana Point sea lions! (For the difference between seals and sea lions, see here)
While whale watching was the most informative of the activities, I did a ton of other things during my time in Los Angeles too!