BOATLOAD HEADS OUT IN SEARCH OF TAILS, SPOUTS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

SOUTH OF ANACAPA ISLAND - Cleanshaven and quick to smile, Randy Kramer is a far cry from Captain Ahab, but he was equally relentless in tracking his prey - the Pacific gray whale.

Kramer, who helmed the Ranger 85 out of Channel Islands Harbor on Saturday, was on the hunt for gray whales. With a couple dozen Channel Islands Sportfishing customers eyeing the waves with nary a fin nor spout in site, the 34-year-old skipper felt restless.

He spun the wheel of the 85-footer and throttled up its two 400-horsepower Detroit Diesels. Keying the radio, he checked with friendly fishermen to see if they had any news. Deckhand Alex Edwards, peering through a set of Baker binoculars, thought he saw a raised tail, but as the Ranger 85 neared the spot, the sea was blue and empty.

``Ohh, I want a whale,'' Kramer said with a nervous grin. ``Is this the second fictitious whale you've seen, Alex?''

Edwards ignored the ribbing, scanning the horizon alongside deckhand Todd Vallerine. A few pelicans soared overhead as a fisherman radioed in what an easy day it was for whale watching. All three men in the pilothouse exchanged rueful glances, uneasily sharing sea stories and monitoring the waves.

Kramer keyed the stereo, which played historical information about local shipwrecks while the theme from ``Titanic'' played in the background. The smell of brewing coffee mixed in with diesel and sea breeze.

``I'm telling you, I saw it,'' the 17-year-old Edwards declared. ``See, there's two spouts. Todd? You saw it, right?''

And there they were. Two spouts, three, four, maybe five, big blasts of air piercing the waves. Suddenly, everyone was a lookout, pointing, yelling. Tails arced through the air, gracefully flipping the sea skyward before they disappeared on deep dives below.

``Those things are huge,'' marveled Pete Dominguez, a 45-year-old carpenter from Oxnard. ``There he is right there! Man, look at that! It's amazing and a lot of people will never get to see something like that.''

This has been a banner year for viewing the massive mammals, according to the American Cetacean Society. The San Pedro-based society reports 304 whales have migrated south past its Palos Verdes Estates monitoring station since Dec. 1, up from 255 last year and nearly 218 on average for the last 10 years.

``It's definitely different than seeing them at Sea World,'' said Pharaba Witt, a 29-year-old West Hollywood resident who works in TV development. ``Sure, they're right in front of you there, but here you get to see them like they really are.''

Like college kids on spring break, the barnacle-encrusted mariners make the annual journey from Alaska to Mexico, preferring the toasty waters off Baja to mate and give birth. Between December and April each year, they're easily visible, hanging around the Channel Islands headed south and closer to shore on the return leg.

Whaling once drove their numbers down to only a few hundred, but international hunting prohibitions have allowed them to rebound from near-extinction.

``Whales are intelligent creatures,'' said Cal Meuser, a volunteer with the Channel Islands Naturalist Corps who dutifully logged each sighting. ``A lot of the time, they'll take a spy-hop and come up and look at the people on the boat.''

None was quite so adventurous on Saturday, but enough pods swirled around the Ranger 85 to send the crowd home happy. Their tails flipped a final wave and the 40-ton behemoths slid sleekly into the depths as the boat turned back toward shore.

``For some reason, people just feel a connection with whales,'' Kramer said. ``I'll tell you what. You make eye contact with a whale, it's just about a religious experience. There's something almost human about them. It's something I'll never forget.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

Whale watching season runs through mid-April. Both Channel Islands Sportfishing, [phone], and Island Packers, [phone], offer trips departing from Channel Islands Harbor. Prices, times and dates vary.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(1 -- 2) Above, deckhand Todd Vallerine looks toward the horizon in search of cetaceans on Saturday near Channel Islands Harbor. Below, a gray whale's tail is spotted just above the surface.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

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IF YOU GO (see text)