For 18 years volunteers have stood on this steep cliffside and stared out toward Catalina Island, counting and observing a multitude of marine wildlife. I copied this graph from the following web site. The data to the right is provided by Alisa Schulman-Janiger who receives email reports daily from the observers and graciously forwards them to me. 83 volunteers contributed 8966.5 effort hours. The official project binoculars are Fujinon 7x50 with built-in reticle and compass.
All participants use binoculars, and several use spotting scopes to confirm and detail sightings.
Weather data, including visibility and sea conditions, is recorded at least hourly. Census observers spotted 500 southbound and 1040 northbound gray whales, compared to 682 southbound and 1383 northbound gray whales last season. Northbound counts steadily decreased from 1984 to 1991-92, fluctuated in the lower range, were substantially higher for two seasons, then also dropped the past two seasons. Although most of the world's estimated 26,000 gray whales migrate past California, census personnel spot only a small proportion. Gray whales off Palos Verdes generally travel further offshore, especially southbound, so we count more northbound than southbound grays each year.