Fast Facts: Whale Watching Rises to Fame

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA一 From a $1 business in 1955 to a billion-dollar industry today, whale watching has transformed into a booming industry in California and across the world. “What began about 30 years ago as a way for local sportfishing boats to survive the slow winter months has now become an important industry all its own,” the Log reported in the February 1979 issue. The first ‘official’ whale-watching trip was conducted by a fisherman from San Diego named Chuck Chamberline who put out a sign saying “See the whales: $1,” according to The Whale-watching Industry: Historical Development, a chapter written by E.C.M Parsons and Erich Hoyt for the book “Whale-Watching (Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management).” Chamberline was influenced by the slow fishing in the winter and by land-based student whale-watching ‘counts’ which had been going on since the late 1940s as part of a University of California research and government monitoring project by the pioneer whale researcher Carl Hubbs. Gray whales at the time were recovering from very low numbers after the end of 19th-century whaling practices. Interests in the whales began peaking and land lookouts, formal guides with naturalists, and informal guides sprang up all along the California coast to witness the gray whale...