Records of North Pacific Right Whales along the coasts of
California, Baja, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii
(updated March 5, 2023)
Records prior to 1855
There was a small amount of whaling by native peoples
prior to the beginning of Yankee pelagic and coastal
operations in the mid-19th century. However, most native
tribes did not actively hunt whales, though they probably
made use of whales that stranded. The Makah tribe of the
Olympic Peninsula in Washington did actively whale from
shore, but archeological digs at the Ozette site reveal
that the catch consisted overwhelmingly of grey and
humpback whales. Right whales comprised only a 2.3%
percent of the bones found.
I have found no other records of right whales stranded
or living along these coasts prior to 1855. The Spaniards
began inhabiting the California coast in 1769, and Russian
sea otter hunters ventured as far south as the Channel
Islands 1805. It seems likely that had there been coastal
concentrations of right whales, as occurs elsewhere in the
world, these would have been commented on or exploited.
Records 1855-1954
Pelagic whaling for right whales in the North Pacific did
not begin until 1835, only after the whalers had decimated
the populations of right whales in the North and South
Atlantic and South Pacific (e.g. Australia and New
Zealand). It picked up in intensity very rapidly then died
off even more rapidly after 1848 and the discovery of the
more valuable bowhead whale further north through the
Bering Straits. I have estimated that the total number of
North Pacific right whales removed by this fishery between
1840-49 was between 21,000-30,000 whales (see
Scarff, 2001 for details).
The first record of a right whale along these coasts is
from 1855. During the 100 years between 1855 and 1954,
there are only 16 records of 21 total whales. The
sightings all occurred along the California coast. I am
unaware of any records for this period from Washington,
Oregon, or Baja California. Of these 16 records, there is
only one stranding (Channel Islands c.1916), two sightings
(Monterey March 1855 and Carmel 1880), and the remaining
13 records are of whales caught by the active coastal
whaling operations that targeting grey and humpback
whales. Two sightings (four whales total) occurred in the
winter of 1879-1880, and three sightings (five whales
total) occurred in the winter of 184-1885. There are only
two records of right whales between 1887-1954.
The coastal whaling operations in California came into
operation after the peak of pelagic whaling for right
whales was over. Their main prey were grey and humpback
whales. Many of the records of right whales during this
period correspond with the locations of coastal whaling
stations (e.g. Monterey/Carmel - 6 records; San Diego - 3
records). Coastal whaling A complete description of all
these records is available on-line
(Table 4). I argued in the cited paper that the
remarkably few records of right whales during this period,
and the almost complete lack of strandings leads to the
conclusion that the coasts of Washington, Oregon,
California, and Baja did not constitute a wintering or
calving ground for the eastern population of right whales
(contrary to the accepted wisdom in the 1980s).
Records 1955-2022
There have been only 18 confirmed records of right
whales off California (including two sightings off Baja)
since 1955. Most of the sightings have been of single
animals and most occurred in late winter or spring
(March-May) very close to shore, several by observers on
shore.
- 5 March 2023. One North Pacific Right whale was
seen at 9:47 am close to shore near Pt. Pinos, Monterey
Bay, California by multiple observers on a Monterey Bay
Whale Watch whalewatching cruise. The whale was heading
west. Contact with the whale was lost after 15 minutes
due to sea conditions. This whale was also seen by crew
and passengers on the Princess Monterey Whalewatch boat
that was on a whalewatching cruise. There are numerous
photos taken that clearly show the animal was a right
whale. Of note is that the whale had dozens of barnacles
on its back and lips in addition to the callosities. The
March date and the presence of coranulid barnacles
parallels the sighting off Half Moon Bay in 1982 listed
below.
- 19 April 2022. One North Pacific Right Whale
was seen at around 9:00 am at 37° 06.029 N, 122° 26.003
W) 5.3 miles southwest of Point Ano Nuevo, California.
The whale was spotted by a recreational fisherman named
Jack Gross. The whale was photographed and a short
video taken, now in possession of NOAA which confirm its
identity as a right whale. It appeared to be feeding by
skimming the surface while swimming. (pers. comm
from William Douros, NOAA)
- 5 May 2017 - Anacapa Island,
Channel Islands, California - east of the
lighthouse (N34'00.675", W119' 19.869" a single whale
was seen by Shelly Johnson on the sailboat Zoarces.
They were able to about 50
photographs, some with the whale lifting its head
out of the water and clearly showing its callosities and
a short video of the whale doing tail throws.
- 14 and 15 April 2017- La Jolla, California. A
single right whale was
photographed on April 14 by a passenger with her
iPhone from a small private plane (Piper Cherokee)
piloted by Chuck Houser. Houser writes " The whale was
at most 1/4 mile offshore roughly west of La Jolla Cove.
It was pointed toward the shore. What I noticed about
this whale was that it wasn't really moving. The
following day a single right whale, presumably the same
animal was filmed at length from the beach at La Jolla
Cove by a beachgoer and a TV news crew. A local TV
station broadcast
the video on air, but the TV commentators
misidentified it as a far more common grey whale that
was migrating north, and only commented on how close to
shore it was. Whale experts did not learn about this
sighting until several days later after the whale had
moved on. Although whale watch operators along the
California coast were alerted the whale was not seen
again.
- 2-14 February 2015 - San Miguel Island, Channel
Islands, California There was a possible
unconfirmed sighting off San Miguel Island in the
Channel Islands. The sighting by Bob DeLong, a NOAA
biologist researching elephant seals, who reported
"seeing a pair of what sound very much like right whales
off San Miguel for the past few days. No photos but
large, black, no dorsal fin, huge black flukes, sounds
like callosities. He saw them from shore but it really
doesn't sound like it could be anything else. His
sighting was reported days afterwards. A subsequent
aerial survey failed to spot any right whales in the
area.(pers. comm Phil Clapham, NOAA)
- 16 September 1998 - 1 unconfirmed
"small" right whale in Monterey Bay was reported by
Debbie Shearwater, (Shearwater Journeys). No photos
exist, and other local observers believe this was an
unusual humpback rather than a right whale.
- 27 February 1998 near Cape
San Martin, California. A single right whale
was spotted off the Big Sur Coast, fleeing a pair of
apparently aggressive gray whales in an unusual
interaction observed by Monterey Bay National Marine
Sanctuary officials. Monterey Bay Sanctuary
Superintendent Bill Douros and NOAA Corps. pilot Lt.
Commander Matt Pickett, were aboard the Sanctuary
airplane along the Big Sur Coast near Cape San Martin,
when large splashes appeared in the ocean below them,
near a pod of gray whales. "We looked down and saw a
large black whale being chased by several gray whales,"
Douros said. Pickett, who has flown right whale census
projects off the East Coast, confirmed the sighting.
"There were probably 12 gray whales in an area about a
quarter square mile near the right whale, although only
two were obviously interacting with the right whale. We
saw one group of six gray whales swimming together,
northbound, several hundred yards south of the right
whale," Douros added. For about 15 minutes Douros and
Pickett circled the whales, watching the right whale
veer back and forth, splash and dive repeatedly as it
tried to elude the pursuing gray whales. Eventually the
right whale submerged for an extended period and Douros
and Pickett continued their flight. While the right
whale was swimming northbound, eluding the gray whales,
neither Douros or Pickett were confident that they could
predict the whale's overall direction of travel. "It's
an extraordinary, unprecedented sighting," said Alan
Baldridge, a cetacean expert recently retired from
Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Laboratory, "We've
never heard of aggressive behavior between baleen
whales. We see aggressive interactions between baleen
and toothed whales - such as orcas. But nothing like
this."
- 2 April 1996 1 right whale, estimated
to be 13m in length of undetermined sex, was sighted in
the company of 3 humpback whales off the western coast
of Maui, Hawaii (20°56' N, 156° 46'
W). The right whale appeared to initiate social
interactions with the humpbacks. This is the first
sighting of right whales near Hawaii since 1979. Salden,
D.R. and Mickelsen, J. 1999. Rare sighting of a North
Pacific right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) in
Hawai'i. Pacific Science 53(4):341-345.
- 19 February 1996 15 km off Cabo
San Lucas, Mexico (23° 02' N, 109° 30' W). A
single right whale was seen by D. Gendron. This is only
the third confirmed sighting of a right whale off Baja,
although Scammon suggested they may have been common
there. Gendron, D. Lanham, S., and Carwardine, M. 1999.
North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena
glacialis) sighting South of Baja California.
Aquatic Mammals 25(1):31-34.
- 3 May 1995 off Piedras
Blancas, CA (Rowlett unpublished reported in
Brownell et al. 2001)
- 24 May 1992 off Cape
Elizabeth, Washington (Rowlett et al.
1994, Northwest Naturalist 75: 102-104).
- 24 March 1992 70km SW of the SE tip
of San Clemente Island, CA (Caretta et
al. 1994. Marine Mammal Sci.
10(1):101-105.
- 9 May 1990 one animal 17m, 8 miles N
of Santa Catalina Island,CA (Scarff,
1991).
- 5 February 1988 one animal. La
Jolla, CA (W. Perrin, pers. comm)
- 20 March 1982. one adult 1.5 km off Pillar
Point (Half Moon Bay), CA, The whale approached
three whale watching cruise boats and repeatedly swam
close by the side of the boats then later breached
several times. After nearly an hour with the whales the
boats had to leave. The whale was not refound when the
boats returned as the winds had picked up. The whale was
covered with dozens of coronulid barnacles routinely
found on humpback whales. There were many gray whales
migrating past, but the right whale was not seen
interacting with any of them. There are high quality
photos of this sighting in the article cited. (Scarff,
J. 1986.)
- 17 April 1981 one 14m animal near Santa
Barbara, CA (Woodhouse & Strickley,
1982).
- 13 September 1974 . 60 km W of Fort
Bragg, CA (NMFS POP)
- 11 March 1965 one 15m animal 12km SW
Punta Abreojos, Baja (Rice & Fiscus
1968)
- 10 May 1963 44 km SSW
Farallon Island (Rice & Fiscus 1968)
- 11 April 1963 . one <9m animal 61
mile SW Pigeon Point, CA (Rice &
Fiscus 1968)
- 13 May 1959 . one 13m animal 16 miles
SW Pt Montara, CA (Rice & Fiscus,
1968)
- 31 March 1955 . one 13m animal off La
Jolla, CA (Gilmore 1956)
If you have any additional information or corrections to
the above material, please e-mail me at nprw4ever@gmail.com.
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