WHALE WATCHERS VOLUNTEERS TRACK WHALES FROM ALASKA TO BAJA.

Byline: Keith Lair Staff Writer

RANCHO PALOS VERDES - ``A blow!,'' came the voice over the radio. ``255, 10 mil.''

Suddenly, three sets of military-style binoculars were aimed at 255 degrees and peering into the Pacific Ocean at a distance of 10 mil (a military term used for judging distance; 1 mil is equal to 1/6,400 of the arc a circle).

``I see a tail,'' Joan Venette said.

``I see a blow,'' Pam Ryono said.

``It's southbound,'' came a voice over the radio.

Behind a locked gate at the old Marineland site on Long Point, there are a lot of sightings of blows and movement. But it's nothing that's top secret, it's the American Cetacean Society's Los Angeles Chapter conducting its 20th annual gray whale census.

The society is the only one of its kind in the world that keeps track of Pacific Gray Whales from a fixed point. It has been using either the Marineland point - which the theme park had called ``Gray Whale Terrace'' - or the Point Vicente lighthouse since 1984 to observe the whales as they migrate between their Alaskan feeding grounds and Baja California breeding waters.

``This is a good indicator for what's going on for gray whales,'' says project director Alisa Schulman-Janiger. ``We're able to spot trends, like if there is a big dip in the amount of whales, or if calves are traveling by themselves.''

Schulman-Janiger and her multitude of volunteers man Gray Whale Terrace from sunrise to sunset between Dec. 1 and the middle of May. They count the whales in each pod, the direction they are going, and look for babies and juveniles. And then they try to determine behavior - if the whale is breaching, rolling, milling (staying in the same area for a length of time), mothers nursing and spyhopping (watching the coastline, perhaps for navigational purposes).

The group also tracks the weather and sea conditions hourly and keeps track of other species, including dolphins, California sea lions, sea otters and other types of whales.

All of the information is logged into records that are updated daily by Schulman-Janiger, who forwards the information to the National Marine Fisheries Services and the International Whaling Commission.

``If the whales are skinny, we know there might be an environmental problem in Alaska,'' said Schulman-Janiger, a trained marine biologist who teaches the subject at the magnet program at San Pedro High, the only program of its kind in the L.A. Unified School District. ``If there's a low calf count, there might be problems in Baja, like the introduction of salt mining. We were instrumental in helping eliminate gill nets off coastal California because we were able to verify how many nets were entangled in whales.''

The season begins in Southern California, or at least for the society, on Dec. 1 with the group looking for southbound whales. In the month of February, there are an equal amount of whales going both directions, making for busy times as spotters scan the ocean.

The amount of southbounders tails off at the end of February. Then it's strictly northbounders, heading back toward Alaskan krill.

The best time to watch the whales going north, Schulman-Janiger says, is the first week of March. Then, the next best time is about the third week of April, when mothers are travelling with calves. Schulman-Janiger says the northbound migration is generally better to watch along Southern California because the whales travel closer to shore.

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium started the census in 1981 when gray whales were on the endangered list. Schulman-Janiger took over the census in '84.

The group logs anywhere from 1,000 to 3,500 whales each year, and the figures were used when the International Whaling Committee needed a status report on the population last year, five years after the species was removed from the endangered list.

``This really has taken on a life of its own,'' Schulman-Janiger said. ``There's no other place like this where we get people of diverse backgrounds who are gathered here because of whales. I didn't think I would still be doing this for 16 years.''

The project could not be done without volunteers, who spent almost 2,000 hours during 166 days looking for whales last year.

``It's a lot of fun,'' said Venette, a retired registered nurse from Torrance. ``It's fun to be here and it's something wonderful that we're doing. It's fun to socialize.''

Venette has been counting whales for 16 years. Last year, she was out every day for a total of 956 hours - the most, by far, of any volunteer.

``I spend all of my mornings here and my husband does his thing. When the season's over, that's when I get caught up on everything else.''

Billy Lewis of San Pedro said that when he goes to sleep, his dreams are of watching whales. When the season ends, he's counting the days until he can watch whales again.

Terry Brown said the drive to and from Tustin, where he is a medical technician, is the perfect break from a hectic week.

``It's a great way to spend a day,'' he said. ``It's so relaxing. Even with the drive, it allows my wife and I to recharge. Plus, it's a chance to see these majestic animals going by.''

The project prefers to have at least three-person crews for its morning and afternoon shifts. Spotters must undergo special training in November and during the first weeks of December.

To volunteer, call Schulman-Janiger at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Pacific Gray Whales, such as this one, pictured off the coast of Ventura, are tracked by the American Cetacean Society's L.A. chapter.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Jo Bonds of El Monte is one of the volunteers crucial to counting the whale migration.

(3 -- 4) At left, dolphins jump out of the Pacific Ocean, and the whale watchers at the American Cetacean Society track their progress as well. Below, without the help of volunteers to log their migration, finding all the whales that pass by would be impossible.

Bernardo Alps/Staff Photographer