Habor Breeze Cruises

BLUE WHALE SEASON IS HERE!

2010-06-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Our official Blue Whale cruises have started. We offer trips 7 days a week, 11:30am and 3:00pm. Adults are $45. Seniors $35, Children $25. Please visit our website www.2seewhales.com to find more information and to purchase tickets online. You may also reach us at (562) 432-4900. An educator from the Aquarium of the Pacific joins us on every trip and gives interesting facts about the marine life we spot out on the ocean. Come join us on our summer search for the largest animal on planet earth, the BLUE WHALE!

Killer Whales

2010-05-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

It just goes to show you never know what to expect on a Whale Watch. When we set out yesterday afternoon on our May Dolphin and Sea Life Cruise we went out with expectations of finding Dolphins, what we found was so much more. We found Dolphins all right, but not just any Dolphin, they were the largest of the Dolphin, or Toothed Whale Family, the Killer Whale or Orca. We were alerted to their presence by the Whale Census Volunteers at the American Cetacean Society (ACS) lookout station at Point Vicente. We raced out to try to intercept these extremely fast moving creatures and WOW what a sight we found.
We found a mixed pod of at least 9 male and female Orcas. Most were full grown at about 30 feet, and a few were young ones. They were playful and several times came right over and played in the bow wave of the boat. We took a lot of pictures to pass onto the Orca Whale Researchers so that they could try to identify which pod of whales these were in Southern California. Just so you know how rare of a site this is, we only see or hear about Orca's in our Southern California waters two or three times a year. Over the next couple of days we will post some more information, and even some pictures of these magnificent creatures, so stay tuned and Happy Whale Watching.

Grey Whale Season Ending

2010-05-03T06:52:00.000-07:00

The beautiful Grey Whales are now all but gone and are well on their way back up to their summer feeding grounds in Alaska. It has turned out to be a poor showing for our part of the West Coast for Grey Whales. Our friends at the American Cetacean Society tell us that the Census this year is way below last year levels. We actually had a great season because of all of our friends out there calling in sightings which we were able to turn into great viewings for our customers. Thank you one and all, you know who you are!!!!!!
On a happier note we have been graced with a fantastic mixture of Fin Whales, Minke Whales, Blue Whales and even an occasional Humpback Whale this Spring. The Blue Whales appear to be starting to scout our waters looking for that Summertime feeding spot they like, but as yet are not staying here consistently. What has been exciting is the large numbers of Fin Whales we have seen. The Second Largest Animal on Earth has discovered Southern California is a great place to spend this time of year and we have been seeing lots of them lately. We have even witnessed two Cow Calf pairs of Fin Whales, absolutely incredible! Fin Whales are a challenge to follow because of their incredible speed and habit of zig zaging all over the area they are feeding but they also love to roll around and lunge feed on the surface and we have been seeing lots of that behavior.
Right now we are in the transition between Grey Whale and Blue Whale Seasons, and are going to be doing only one Whale Watch at 2pm Weekdays and 12 noon and 3pm on the Weekends. The weather is getting better and warmer with every week that goes by. Looking forward to seeing you on the Christopher.

Blue Whales are Coming!

2010-04-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

This week has been incredible. We have been having summertime weather, lots of marine life including Grey Whales, Fin Whales, Minke Whales, Dolphins, Mola Mola and more. How could it get any better??? Yesterday it got much better, on our way back in from a most incredible Whale Watch with great views of Five Fin Whales everyone was basking in the sun and absorbing all that they had seen. Proving once again the the Whale Watching is never over until the boat is tied to the dock in Rainbow Harbor, up pops the most beautiful sight, a full sized Blue Whale right in front of the vessel. We quickly stopped to the view the gentle giant and it surfaces again right in front of us, upwind, and everyone got a free shower of the Largest Spout we have encountered all year. The whole boat broke into spontanious cheers and applause.

This is the earliest Blue Whale Sighting we have ever experienced in the San Pedro Channel and a pretty good sign that the Blue Whales are on the way back for another record year. Stay tuned for more exciting news about these Magnificent Animals. See you on the water.

Cow / Calf Grey Whales and much more.

2010-04-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been very exciting at Harbor Breeze. We have seen an increasing number of Mother(Cow) and Baby (Calf) Grey Whales heading North. We have mixed feeling about this time of year because this also indicated the begining of the end of the Grey Whale season. The single adults and adolescent whales are still migrating past our coast but their numbers are much less than two weeks ago.

The great news is that the Humpbacks and the Fin Whales are back. We have seen some great shows over the last two weeks including two trips with Breaching Humpbacks. On another trip we had an amazing encounter with a Cow / Calf Humpback pair. This is a very rare site and it had the whole boat cheering when we realized there was a tiny body next to the adult.

This past week has been filled with Fin Whales surface feeding. They have been putting on a great show zig-zaging around on the surface, rolling on their sides and Lunge Feeding. Awesome Sights!!!! The Fin Whales are fearless animals, do not be suprised if they turn and come right at the boat, roll on their side to take a close look at us and then head back to their feeding. We also had a close up view of a beautiful Cow / Calf Fin Whale pair this week. Wow what a week!!!!

Baby Grey Whale Sited

2010-03-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Christopher set out on the 1200 Whale Watching cruise with 95 lucky patrons on board. Little did we know it would be a trip to remember. We were approaching the entrance to Long Beach Harbor and the radio crackled with a report of a Grey Whale sited near Royal Palms Beach along the beautiful shoreline of Palos Verdes. Thats it, lets go look at that whale as it is close by, the crew decided. 25 minutes later we were pulling up alongside the Kelp line at Royal Palms and the whole boat started to yell, scream, cheer, and clap all at once. Up had popped the most beautiful sight we could imagine.......... A mother grey whale and her new born calf headed northbound to Alaska!!!!! This was the first one sited this year and is a real mile stone for the dedicated Whale Watchers aboard the Christopher. We hope it is just the first of many we view this year. The Mothers and Babies are heading North now so we will be searching hard for more of those precious little whales. Come join us this is a very exciting time of year.

Grey Whales make their turn North

2010-03-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

We have been experiencing the much awaited Transition Period in the Grey Whale Migration. Most of the whales have made it to the warm lagoons of Baja, California and now are on the way back North. We are still seeing one or two adolescent whales heading South each day, but the majority now seem to be heading North. This is an exciting time because we are seeing more Breaching Behaviour and soon we expect to see the Cow and Calf pairs. As far as numbers it appears that this year will be as good as last year or maybe even a little better.
Fin Whale sightings have been better than ever this year. They disappeared for a week or so and then this weekend they were back rolling and lunge feeding on the surface in huge clouds of Krill that was seen on the surface near the "Wiskey" Buoy. What a treat!!!!!!
Our resident Humpback Whale has also made an occassional appearance to make this season a most exciting one. Hope to see you on the Christopher.

Grey Whales are Here.

2010-02-12T08:25:00.000-08:00

The long awaited return of the Grey Whales is now in full force. They started to show up at the beginning of January a little behind schedule. The biologists tell us that this is expected because of the longer distance that the Grey Whales are traveling because of Global Warming and the receding ice packs up in Alaska. Despite the longer migration distance, the Grey Whales seem to be showing up in good numbers with between 5 to 10 whales passing through the San Pedro Channel each day. The weather has been great, for the most part, for viewing them and we have been really excited seeing quite a few Mother and Calf pairs heading south. This is also much expected because of the added distance that they have to travel. We have had our mix of very shy adolescent whales and very good showing adults. Lots are showing us their Flukes and we have even had some spectacular Breaching Behavior seen this year. Stay tuned for more exciting information about the Grey Whale Migration as the season progresses.

2010-01-19T16:13:00.000-08:00

2009 BLUE WHALE SEASON
We just finished the most fantastic Blue Whale Season Ever! Our fleet sighted over 700 Blue Whales throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall setting a new record for the fourth year in a row. Many new and exciting things happened this year, but the most wondrous was the large increase in Cow/Calf pairs (Mother and Baby). We have helped to document at least seven distinct individual sets of Cow and new born Calves. Our Naturalists from the Aquarium of the Pacific, and Excited Customers also viewed Blue Whales Breaching, an extremely rare siting, as well as lots of Lunge Feeding events. For the first time ever we were able to view a Mother Blue Whale teaching her fairly new Calf how to Lunge Feed and followed them with Cameras blazing for about three miles! Our Captains also joined in the effort to help prevent Ship Strikes in the San Pedro Channel by notifying the United States Coast Guard and NOAA of the daily location of the whales. We also observed the Blue Whale Sighting Season to grow once again. Our first Blue Whale Sighting occurred on April 21, 2009 and the last one was viewed on December 19, 2009.

Year Round Whale Watching

2010-01-14T09:03:00.000-08:00