Many Whales to See, but Few at Sea to Watch Them : Business: The economic slump seems to have hurt South Bay operators who offer up-close viewing of migrating gray whales.

Although an unusually large number of gray whales are now migrating past the South Bay, ridership has dropped on local whale-watching boats, and one operator says the sagging economy is to blame.

“It’s a little hard to tell since we’re not even a month into the season, but we’re definitely down from last season,” said Les McFarland, manager of Redondo Sport Fishing, which counts on the winter whale-watching trips to supplement its summer fishing revenue.

“It was a slow, slow summer, and winter isn’t looking any better,” he said. “I’ve been here 29 years and this is roughly the worst year I’ve seen so far. . . . We’re still here, but the boss said, ‘Don’t cash your check for a month.’ ”

At 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro, the South Bay’s only other whale-watching tour operator, the outlook isn’t quite so gloomy.

“It’s too early for us to tell how this season will turn out,” said manager Melanie Jones. “The bookings are a little down, but we’re not sure why.”

Operators in Orange County say their business has fallen off 10% to 40% from last year.

Whale-watching has become a $35-million-per-year business in California, with an estimated 200 tour boats statewide shuttling the curious for an up-close encounter with the California gray whale, one of the world’s largest mammals.

Not even whale-watching is escaping the current economic slump, however. McFarland believes that people living on tight budgets may be reducing the amount they spend on recreation. In addition, storms during key holiday weekends cut ridership early in the season, which began Dec. 26 and lasts through early April.

Redondo Sport Fishing’s morning trips, which previously have been packed with schoolchildren on field trips, have recently attracted as few as 12 customers to the 144-passenger boat, McFarland said. Redondo Sport Fishing ticket prices for adults are $8 on weekdays and $11 on weekends; 22nd Street Landing charges $11 during the week and $12 on weekends.

To attract more customers, Redondo Sport Fishing is offering two-for-one tickets on weekday afternoon trips, which traditionally have attracted the fewest passengers.

The offer had some impact Tuesday, when 23 passengers from the morning three-hour trip on The Voyager returned to the dock to find 70 new riders waiting to go out.

“It was fantastic,” said Bruce Crick, an engineer from Manhattan Beach, who took the morning ride with his brother’s family visiting from Australia. “I saw an ad saying they were charging less during the week, and it seemed like something more than the usual tourist thing to do.”

American Cetacean Society volunteer Cy Stewart, who rides along on the boat to tell passengers about the whales, said people have been missing one of the best seasons ever.

“We’re seeing more and more whales,” he said. “Last week we had one breach (jump clear of the water) twice right in front of the boat, not 100 yards off.”

Because of the increasing number of whales, there is a federal proposal to remove the California gray whale from the endangered species list. This week marks the end of the public comment period on the proposal.

Environmentalists are urging the government instead to place the whales on the “threatened” list, so that measures to protect their habitat can be maintained.

Stewart said the California gray whale’s comeback from the brink of extinction is “a great success story.”

At one time, there were thousands of gray whales in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but hunting decimated the population. The last Atlantic gray whale was seen more than 100 years ago.

In the Pacific, there were two separate herds of gray whales, called the Korean stock and the California stock. During the late 19th Century, whaling sharply reduced both populations. Hunting of gray whales did not stop until 1946, by which time the Korean stock was extinct.

Scientists were not certain that the few hundred California gray whales remaining would be enough to save the species.

But the whales began to multiply, and now scientists believe there may be as many as 20,000 making the 10,000-mile annual migration from Alaska to Baja California and back.

Those who see them say the sight is well worth the expense of a boat ticket.

“They are magnificent,” said Colleen Poelvoorde of Torrance, who was taking her two children and four of their friends on the Tuesday afternoon boat. “The size, the power. . . . We wouldn’t miss it.”