VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT TO TRACK GRAY WHALES.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

Amateur biologists can have a whale of a good time, taking part in a volunteer spotting program by the American Cetacean Society while the annual migration of California gray whales is in full swing.

The society has sponsored the whale-tracking effort for most of the past 17 years from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, with volunteers scanning offshore areas for signs of gray whales as well as dolphins, porpoises and other kinds of whales, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, the project coordinator.

This year's first gray whale was spotted off the coast Dec. 8, and the number of spottings has picked up dramatically since then, said Schulman-Janiger.

Typically, the southbound migrations peak in the third week of January as hundreds of gray whales move from feeding areas off Alaska and Canada to lagoons along Baja California where they winter and give birth.

The grays later head north, with a first pulse of migrating whales moving through waters off Southern California the first week of March. Mother whales tend to stay in the lagoons longer, allowing their young to gain strength for the long swim north.

Their trip off Southern California peaks around the first week of April.

The society's spotters have tracked many other kinds of whales and dolphins as well, including schools of common dolphins that have numbered as many as 3,000, Schulman-Janiger said.

``It's absolutely amazing,'' she said. ``The sea is absolutely a-boil with these dolphins.''

In the past three years, a group of killer whales has begun frequenting the region between January and March. The loosely allied group of 80 to 100 animals appears to be part of a seldomly spotted pack of killer whales known as the ``Off-Shores.''

Unlike some other groups of killer whales that move up and down the Pacific Coast, this group eats only fish, and has even been spotted playing with sea lions, Schulman-Janiger said.

It also has been spotted co-existing peacefully with dolphins, which other groups of killer whales don't do.

``Normally, it would be suicidal for a sea lion to engage in that kind of behavior with other groups of killer whales,'' she said.

It also has turned up basic information about the typical migrating behaviors of grays, such as the fact that they tend to hug closer to shore and dawdle more when heading north than when heading south, said Schulman-Janiger.

Spotters routinely see several kinds of dolphins who live in the region and tend to follow schools of mackerel, sardines and salmon upon which they feed. They also see minke, sperm and blue whales from time to time, among other species.

The society had about 60 people help in the spotting program last year, but is in desperate need for more volunteers this year, particularly on weekdays, Schulman-Janiger said.

For information, call [phone].

The society tries to have spotters scanning the ocean between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily from Dec. 1 to May 1. Information gleaned from the spotters is passed on to researchers trying to track the patterns of grays and other whales and dolphins, Schulman-Janiger said.

The interpretive center is located on Palos Verdes Drive West, in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes.

``All the people need is a pair of binoculars, and lots of warm clothes, because it is cold and exposed and you will be out there for a while,'' she said.

Patience is useful, too, because sightings can become erratic.

Schulman-Janiger, who is a marine biology teacher at San Pedro High School, said she also is looking for any photos of killer whales taken in the region. Such whales' fins and the gray area just behind the fins are unique to each animal and are used to identify their travels around the Pacific.