Yearly vigil begins as whales pass local waters on 6,000-mile migration.

The Christmas season, the old year and the decade may be winding down, but last week marked a traditional beginning for California’s favorite cetacean, the Pacific gray whale.

The day after Christmas was the official debut of the whale-watching season, according to officials at the Cabrillo Marine Museum and the Los Angeles chapter of the American Cetacean Society, which co-sponsor whale-watching cruises.

As if on cue, local whale-watching companies say they have spotted a few of the magnificent mammals this week off the coast of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, near Portuguese Bend as well as near Point Vicente.

“I saw two (Wednesday) and they put on a good show,� said Capt. Jim Peterson of L.A. Harbor Sportfishing.

The lone whales appeared to be front-runners, or pregnant females who typically lead the way on the 6,000-mile trek from the frigid Bering Sea to the warm waters of Baja California in Mexico, where birth and mating take place.

Members of the American Cetacean Society, who keep a dawn-to-dusk whale-counting vigil from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center during migrating season, have counted 28 Pacific gray whales since Nov. 30, said center director Nancy Rosenthal. Last year, volunteers at the center’s census point counted 2,415 whales going by from November through early May.

The number of Pacific gray whales, which 20 years ago were declared an endangered species, has grown to about 21,000, said Tia Collins of the society.

But some longtime whale watchers say the number of the mammals migrating close to the California coastline has declined. Although the whales are still using the same general path, they may have altered their course farther westward, whale watchers theorize, seeking to avoid injury in the boat-crowded San Pedro Channel. Cetacean society officials and some whale-watching boat captains say the gray whales may be migrating instead in the Outer Santa Barbara Passage, on the far side of Santa Catalina Island.

Last week, Curt Kinkead, a Cabrillo Marine Museum volunteer who narrates whale-watching tours for Catalina Cruises, set out for Catalina by kayak to look for the mammals.

Although fog and rough swells kept Kinkead and his partner, Phillip Hahn, close to the mainland and they did not see any whales, Kinkead said it is early in the season. To test the theory that the whales are moving farther out, Kinkead said he plans to row out to the Santa Barbara Passage once a week by kayak looking for Pacific grays.

Kinkead--who said he holds the world record for a canoe trip of more than 8,000 miles--touts the kayak as a better way to approach the mammals, who he said have readily approached kayaks in the Baja peninsula.

He cautioned that kayakers should carefully follow federal guidelines for behavior around whales, including maintaining a distance of 100 yards from the mammals, not making sudden moves or dangling oars or other items near the animal, and keeping behind the animal rather than crossing in front of it.

Citing the increase in kayaking as a sport and the popularity of whale watching, Kinkead called the two pastimes perfect complements.

As more people kayak, he predicted, “close encounters between whales and people are going to become increasingly common.� The smaller, motorless boats should make the encounters safe ones, he said--provided kayakers follow the whale-watching rules.