Whale watchers prepare for the cetaceans’ return

Lolita Harper

After a banner year of phenomenal sightings, marine life enthusiasts

are gearing up for this whale-watching season.

Franci Carpenter was on a shark fishing boat in early summer when

she was privy to an unprecedented whale sighting. The manager of the

Newport Channel Inn, who often helps guests book various charter

tours, was on such a tour when she was confronted with “the largest

living thing she has ever seen.”

“Have you ever seen one?” Carpenter asked. “It is absolutely

phenomenal.”

Many who have seen whales up close have the same reaction and are

looking forward to this year’s whale-watching season, which began in

late November and runs through mid-April.

Don Moseley, who charters his small boat out of Newport Harbor for

whale-watching tours, echoed Carpenter’s admiration for the gentle

giants.

“It is really spectacular,” he said. “I’ve seen some blue whales,

and they are the largest living mammals on Earth. ... To see his eye

and the ripples in his skin and the muscle tissue -- and then the

tail raised up. The fluke was wider than my boat.”

Moseley usually specializes in sailing charters to and from

Catalina, but when the temperatures drop, he caters to the

whale-watching crowd. In Newport Beach, people catch the whales on

their migration route from Alaska to Baja California, where the

whales go to give birth, he said.

The fathers make their return trips anytime from late February to

mid-March, and the mothers come back with their calves around April.

The whales got a rest from Newport whale-watching charters because of

the boat parade, he said, but they can expect to be studied, pointed

at and photographed in the upcoming weeks and months.

“It really just depends on the weather, the food supply, the

strength of the whale -- tons of factors,” Moseley said. “But for the

most part, you can catch them from now until April.”

And catch them is exactly what Carpenter, a longtime fisherwoman,

said she would do.

“I have to see it again, this time in a larger boat,” she said.

She described the mixture of awe and terror that ran through her

body as the enormous creature, which their captain had said was a

blue whale, moved closer to their tiny boat. The whale would come to

the surface, at which time Carpenter said she could look into its

massive eye, which was bigger than she. Then it would dip down into

the water, leaving the boaters wondering where he may pop up again.

“I was scared, I’ll admit it,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, its so

beautiful, but I hope it’s not coming over here.’”

Carpenter said she is hooked. This year, she and her friends --

one of whom just bought a 50-foot Pacemaker -- are in hot pursuit of

migrating whales.

“Oh, I’ll see it again. I have to,” she said. “After that

experience with whales, I will see it again. We’ll do whatever it

takes. We are basically going after them.”