Back in the Swim : Marine life: Boaters glimpse migrating California gray whales, which have been removed from the endangered species list.

By MAIA DAVIS

Jan. 2, 1993 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The announcement that California gray whales will be removed from the endangered species list didn’t sit too well this week with some of the animal lovers on a whale-watching excursion off the Ventura County coast.

“I think it’s a little dangerous,” said Ojai resident Janis Emhardt.

Emhardt’s concern was that taking gray whales off the endangered species list could open the way to offshore oil-drilling and other activities along whale migratory routes that could disturb the animals’ habitat.

“It removes one more obstacle,” she said.

Emhardt was one of 30 local residents and tourists on a 3 1/2-hour boat trip Thursday to see the gray whales as they make their annual migration from the Bering Sea to Baja California.

The day before the excursion, federal officials had announced that the whale’s population has increased enough to remove the animal from the list of endangered species.

From fewer than 5,000 in 1946, when the United States banned whaling, the animals now number more than 20,000, officials estimate.

However, their higher numbers didn’t make them any more accessible to the crowd of children and adults who went on the whale-watching trip with Island Packers, one of three local companies offering the paid excursions.

On a 65-foot-long boat, the group took off from Ventura Harbor at 9:30 a.m. and spotted their first whale off Santa Cruz Island about 45 minutes later.

Not wanting to frighten the animal, captain Randy Davis turned down the engine and kept the boat about 100 yards from the whale.

But, from this distance, passengers had to look hard to glimpse the elusive creature.

“There it is!” one spectator called out.

“See it?” another said.

Within a few minutes, everyone could see the high spurts of water the whale emitted between dives.

Boat guide Matt Kelly reminded the audience that such glimpses may be the most that whale-watchers should expect.

“It’s his back yard,” Kelly said over the boat’s loudspeaker. “It’s his world. We are the visitors. It’s not his job to give us a show.”

The second whale, spotted about two hours later, was more of an exhibitionist, giving the crowd repeated views of its wide, flat tail as it dove below the surface of the water.

Although neither whale did a belly flop or other acrobatics that would have displayed its entire body, most of the boat’s passengers said they were satisfied.

“Nature is unpredictable,” said Louise McKuillen, 59, a resident of Lexington, Ky., who was visiting California with her husband and family. “I’m glad we saw what we saw.”

Reiko Bohon, an accountant from Tujunga who made the excursion with her husband, said she didn’t mind that she hadn’t had fuller views of the animals, which can stretch as long as 49 feet and weigh as much as 47 tons.

“We can imagine it even if we don’t see it,” Bohon said.

And, although the passengers had paid $14 to $21 each to see whales, many said the highlight of the trip was encountering a school of hundreds of dolphins.

Apparently welcoming the boatload of people, the dolphins surrounded the vessel, putting on a 15-minute show of diving and gliding through the clear water.

“It’s amazing how confident they are,” Cathy Dutcher of Moorpark said. “They come right up to the boat.”

“Look at them,” one girl said as she gripped the boat rail and peered down into the clear water to watch the performance. “It’s too much!”

Although the dolphins’ sociability contrasted sharply with the whales’ aloofness, some crew members and passengers said gray whales can be more friendly than those encountered Thursday.

“I’ve had them come right under my boat and surf under my bow,” Davis said.

Emhardt, a second-grade teacher in Ventura who lives in Ojai, said gray whales have become more elusive over recent years as the number of whale-watching excursions and other boating off the county’s coast has increased.

“It’s now harder to find them,” Emhardt said.

Indeed, scientists have found that the whales are swimming farther away from the California coast in their annual November-to-May migration to Baja.

Aware of this trend, several passengers on the excursion said they weren’t entirely comfortable about treading into the animal’s territory.

“I have mixed feelings about seeing them,” said Debbie Colodner, an oceanographer from Nyack, N.Y., who was visiting California with her husband and his family.

“People who see them probably have a better appreciation for them,” Colodner said. “But I’m not sure we’re supposed to see them.”