Cabrillo Whalewatch Begins its 43rd Season Thursday

As the Christmas season comes to a close and New Year festivities approach, the Cabrillo Whalewatch program is set to begin its 43rd year on Thursday.

The program, co-sponsored by the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society, has more than 100 trained naturalists that will board one of several whale watching boats from Spirit Cruises in San Pedro, Redondo Beach Sportfishing and Matt Walsh in Marina Del Rey.

The peak season to whale watch runs from December to mid-April, and Cabrillo Whalewatch says its team of naturalists are “trained to interpret sightings as whale watchers head out in pursuit of these majestic animals.”

“The naturalists will answer questions and offer information on not only Pacific gray whales, but also a variety of other marine life spotted off the Southern California coast,” a Cabrillo Whalewatch press release stated.

The whales migrate along the coast annually traveling between 12,000 and 14,000 miles from the nutrient-rich waters of the Arctic seas where they spend their summer feeding to the warm lagoons of Baja, Calif., where they mate and give birth.

Cabrillo Whalewatch said that new calves can be seen swimming with their mothers as they return north during the second half of the whale watching season.

Most naturalists predict another record season for gray whale sightings after last springs successful sightings.

For more information on the Cabrillo Whalewatch visit the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M White Drive, or call 310-548-7562.