Charter boats off the coast of Dana Point reported humpback whale sightings Friday afternoon, and the season’s first blue whale sighting earlier this week.

“I’m hoping it signifies that we’re going to have a great whale watching season,” said Dave Anderson, captain of Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari.

He said it’s unusually early to see blue whales off the coast. This blue whale was 60 feet in length.

Meanwhile, there are still the gray whales out, migrating north from Baja on their way back to Alaska. There’s still sightings of cow and calf pairs, Anderson said.

He said there are about 800 humpbacks off the California coast, mostly in central California. Usually, there’s only two to three sightings a year, but the past few years there’s been 10 to 15 each year.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PATRICK CLARK/DOLPHINSAFARI.COM

Humpbacks are the most playful of the whale species, and most likely to breech out of the water and come close to the boat to check out passengers.

The Ocean Institute’s Sea Explorer captain Mike Bursk reported seeing a cow and calf pair of humpback whales today.  They were sighted less than a mile off the coast near the Ocean Institute during a school field trip.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OCEAN INSTITUTE

“Humpbacks are rarely seen in near-shore waters,” according to Bursk.  “They looked healthy, and were traveling up the coast.”

He said this is the third humpback sighting within a mile of the shore in the last three weeks.

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