Whale watchers aboard our catamaran Manute'a experienced a rare and up-close wildlife encounter with two migrating gray whales off the coast of Dana Point, California. The whales approached the boat and spent more than one hour swimming around and under the vessel, often within arm’s reach of surprised passengers. From the boat’s exclusive eye-to-eye underwater viewing pods, one of the large whales could be seen gently rubbing against the hull before surfacing under the ‘eye-spy’ tram nets that separate the twin hulls of the catamaran. Our boat was in neutral during the encounter.

Such unusually friendly behavior, known as a mugging, is more often reserved for the mating and birthing lagoons in Baja California, Mexico. There, gray whales are now known as the friendly whale because they will come over to boats specifically to interact with people. In the lagoons a gray whale mothers will even nudge their young calves over to the boat to be touched! It is rare for gray whales to exhibit the kind of behavior seen in this video along the migration route.

Southern California residents are familiar with the annual migration of these large marine mammals and know Dana Point to be one of the best places to view the migration. Gray whales often travel within a mile or two of the coast, and are believed to use Dana Point’s headlands as a landmark on their route.

Filmed by Craig DeWitt aboard Capt. Dave's whale watching catamaran sailboat "Manute'a".

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Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari offers daily, year-round, dolphin and whale watching trips from Dana Point, California, aboard a hi-tech catamaran sailboat with Eye-to-Eye Underwater Viewing Pods.

Tel: (949) 488-2828
Web: https://www.dolphinsafari.com
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Dolphin and whale footage is copyright David Anderson/DolphinSafari.com and may not be used without permission.