Whale Watching Worldwide

California
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR: Number of
operators
Direct
expenditures
Indirect
Expenditures
Total
Expenditure
1991 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
1994 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
1998 1,774,700 N/A 65 $14,110,000 $50,171,000 $64,281,000
2008 1,371,467 ‐2.5% 73 $14,308,814 $68,573,343 $82,882,157
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Fort Bragg
02: Channel Islands
03: Gulf of Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
04: Los Angeles
05: Cabrillo National Monument
California has the longest established whale watching industry in
the world, with formal boat‐based whale watching going back as far
as the 1950s (Hoyt, 2008).
The primary focus of whale watching tourism in California is the
winter migration of gray whales which occurs between November
and May. Each year, gray whales migrate from Arctic feeding grounds along the California coast to mating
and calving grounds in Baja California, México. The southern migration generally takes place between
November and February, and is followed by the northern migration as the gray whales return, with calves, to
northern feeding grounds. Except for in San Diego, whales tend to be farther from the shore during the
southern migration and closer during the northern migration, which usually peaks during April, with slower
mother and calf pairs still being sighted into May. Some regions offer summer whale watching of blue and
humpbacks between May and December, although whale sightings of these two species is usually highest
between June and September. Orcas are also increasingly seen year‐round, particularly in Monterey Bay.
Most locations also offer year‐round sightings of at least some of the following species of dolphins and
porpoises including long‐ and short‐beaked common dolphins, Pacific white‐sided dolphins, Risso’s dolphins,
bottlenose dolphins, northern right whale dolphins, harbour porpoises and Dall’s porpoises. Species sighted
less frequently include fin whales, minke whales, sperm whales and Baird’s beaked whales. With offshore
islands and marine sanctuaries along the coast, extended day trips are also popular, particularly to the Gulf
of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and within the
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Overall, land‐based whale watching continues to be a big attraction with an estimated 981,000 land‐based
whale watching tourists in 2008. This is based on seasonal visitation data to around 30 state and national
parks or beaches and is slightly higher than the estimate for land‐based whale watchers in 1998. However,
in 1998, the Cabrillo National Monument was estimated to attract approximately 300,000 land‐based whale
watching tourists based on overall annual tourist visitation of 1.1 million. By 2008, overall visitation to
Cabrillo had dropped to 700,000, and hence the estimate for land‐based whale watchers at Cabrillo has
subsequently dropped to 125,000 tourists. Despite this, the Cabrillo National Monument remains in the top
four locations for land‐based whale watching in California, along with Point Reyes National Seashore,
Sonoma Coast State Park and the Point Vicente Interpretive Center. Significant numbers of more casual
land‐based whale watchers are not included in these estimates, since in many locations along the coast,
whales can be seen from any high point and along many coastal roads. This more informal whale watching
has not been estimated in this report.
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