By Mick Pattinson
Humpback Whale from Humpback Animals Camp
No one has seen anything like it before. Not off the coast of this Southern California beach town, Dana Point, or anywhere else within 500 miles: Migrating whales are in the mood for love—so much so they cannot even wait until they reach the usual site for the completion of their courtship rituals: The tip of Baja California far to the south.
“Get a lagoon,” says one sea captain to the lovey-dovey mammals.
And it is not even Valentine’s Day, yet.
“For reasons no one knows, the whales and dolphins are having some kind of banner year in the waters off of the Dana Point Headlands,” said Sanford Edward. “And people from all over the world are coming to Dana Point and the Headlands to enjoy it.”
Sanford Edward owns a real estate development on the beach at the Dana Point near a local landmark called the Headlands. The parks, three-mile trail, and nature interpretive center he built along with his project are getting used now as never before.
But on this day in January, if someone had asked Sanford Edward why all the people where ‘oohing and ahhing,’ he would have had to say “I don’t know.” They did not cover that when he was studying for a Masters in architecture and design at Harvard.
At first, someone thought it might be a celebrity in town: Famous people are always stopping by Dana Point and the Headlands for one reason or another. Over the last few months that included Jackson Browne, Sara McLachlan, William Shatner, and just about every world class surfer you can imagine.
But they don’t attract crowds. Locals let them carry on with their business. An appreciative nod is about the extent of the attention most receive. But this crowd was more interested in the ocean than in Jackson Browne’s tour bus.
A little girl standing just off shore at Strand Vista Park figured it out for him: “Daddy look, the whales. They are spouting.”
And sometimes doing more than that.
It even has a name now: Eco-tourism.
“I came up from Encinitas to see this,” said Jerome Stocks, the former mayor of that coastal town down the road near San Diego. “I heard about it from a boater who said the whales and dolphin are out in record numbers at the Headlands. So here I am. And I don’t know what it more amazing, the whales, or all the people who are on some kind of pilgrimage to see them.”
“The only thing I can compare it to are the whales gathering off the West Coast of Maui in February,” Stocks said. “And that is also incomparable.”
Some watch from the parking lots above the beach. Others get closer and take the public trail system that culminates at The Headlands Nature Interpretive Center.
Some go in boats. The local guides are splashing some fantastic video all over the Internet. One boat even has a miniature helicopter—I’m trying not to call it a drone, but that is what it is—that captures video from above the whales.
This is a great way to see how they really are.
At Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari, eco-tourists are seeing the 70-foot mammals up close and personal: “A pair of amorous gray whales engaged in a rare and incredible display of courtship and mating behavior that is usually seen only in the lagoons of Baja,” observed the Captain in a video of the aquatic and romantic episode. “No one is sure why the white dolphin are around when whales meet. But they just attach themselves to the whales when it happens. They love it.”
The parking lot is full of cars from all over: Arizona. New Mexico. Even New Hampshire.
Some of the eco-tourists come from the neighboring Ritz-Carlton. This world-renowned resort offers eco-tourism for their guests to check out Strand Beach and local tide pools. Guests investigate the native foliage and wildlife of the Dana Point Headlands, take docent-led tours and learn how they adapt to the ever-changing coast.
And of course the whales are a big attraction.
It is not just tourists. Far from it. Lots of locals are having fun discovering this relatively new vantage point and this definitely new attitude from the whales.
Only they don’t call it eco-tourism. They just call it another day in Dana Point. At the Headlands. Where Sanford Edward enjoys the whales every day, and does not admit anything other than spectacular live whale shows are what he had planned all along.
