Calling All Whale Watchers!

Whales —blue whales, humpback whales, gray whales and orcas, all in one place! Yep, I’ve seen all those (and more) while aboard whale-watch boats, but this particular sighting was in the new guide “Whale-Watching on the Pacific Coast: Easily Identify Whales, Dolphins, and Other Marine Mammals.” 

Packed with useful information on different species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, the guide also reveals the best spots from Alaska to Southern California to board whale-watch boats and where to spot the animals from land. 

Here too are an informed discussion on whale conservation, terrific photos of whales and their typical behaviors and tips on what to wear at sea. Plus, this handy, spiral-bound guide is the perfect size for your backpack.

If you are assuming I wrote the guide, you are wrong.

Stan Minasian is the author. He is the founder of Whaleopedia, a free educational website that is a project of Bluecology, a marine conservation organization. (I am privileged to manage the weekly Facebook posts for each — look ‘em up.) We share a deep love for whales, and I’m proud to know him.

I first learned about Stan in 1984, when I bought "The World's Whales: The Complete Illustrated Guide," which he wrote with whale biologist Kenneth Balcomb for Smithsonian Books. Since then, Stan has written, edited and produced 16 documentaries on marine mammals and natural history for all the top television nature channels, here and abroad.   

When my copy of the new guide arrived, I read every word and then settled in to relish memories of my past whale-watch trips. They date back to 1982, when I took my first trip, out of Barnstable Harbor, Massachusetts. Since then, watching whales from boats large and small has been my passion. I’m sharing photos from some of the trips in this post.  

I’ve boarded boats in numerous coastal cities in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Massachusetts and Maine, as well as Argentina, British Columbia, Mexico and Newfoundland. Sometimes, I was out on the water just for the afternoon. On other trips, I stayed a week and went out at least once every day; sometimes twice. 

Over the years, I’ve written about almost all these trips for dozens of newspapers and magazines (including USA Today, Disney Adventures Magazine, Cruise Travel and United Press International, a syndicate) and penned online features for Next Avenue (the PBS-sponsored site for readers 50 and older), and for Enterprise’s Pursuits, an online travel magazine. I also wrote a whale-watch guide (two editions), a nature book for kids about dolphins (with amazing photos by National Geographic photographer Flip Nicklin!) and another kids' book on whales. (The books all are out of print now, but some are available used online, so I have a few copies stored away.)  

Reading Stan’s guide helped me recall my many interviews with whale scientists, marine conservationists and boat captains about the different whale species and the threats they face. When I first started writing about whales, I got lots of encouragement from Erich Hoyt, a book author and whale and dolphin researcher, and from Roger Payne, the biologist and environmentalist famous for discovering with Scott McVay in 1967 that humpback whales sing haunting songs. (Roger, who died last summer, wrote the foreword in 1990 for my guidebook, and remained my friend for decades.)   

Almost a dozen other whale experts have shared their experiences and their expertise with me, and I especially enjoyed boat trips with Hal Whitehead, an expert on sperm whales; the late Stephen Leatherwood, an expert on gray whales; and the late Izzy Szczepaniak, a naturalist with Oceanic Society. A shout-out also is due here to boat captains Jared Davis and the late Roger Thomas in San Francisco and Peke Sosa in Argentina. 

All whale watchers (and wanna-be whale watchers) and marine conservationists will be happy to learn about Stan’s latest project, one that once again reminds us all to always honor whales. I’m so happy to help spread the word. So soak up all the wisdom in Stan's new guide and book a whale-watch trip this summer. This could be your passion too! 

(Caption info for my whale photos, from top: Me, meeting a gray whale up close and personal in San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California, Mexico; three orcas in Haro Strait off British Columbia; a teenage humpback whale in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, that slapped our little rubber boat with its 15-foot-wide tail; the biggest female Southern right whale in the bay off Peninsula Valdes in Argentina (so said Captain Peke Sosa) and the Very Best Whale Photo I've ever taken); a Southern right whale calf indulging in people-watching off Peninsula Valdes; that same calf and mom heading off at sunset.)