A record early number of Pacific gray whale sightings off Southern California, thanks to a surprisingly strong surge during the past several days, has marine mammal enthusiasts in whale heaven and suggests that the beloved cetaceans began their southbound migration about two weeks early.

An early migration, most likely the result of excellent summer feeding conditions in Arctic waters, implies that the whale population is healthy and perhaps continuing to rebound from a drastic population decline from 1998-2002.

"The whales we're now seeing are rotund, and very well-fed, so they're in good condition," said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, director of the ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project at Point Vicente on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Volunteer spotters through Wednesday afternoon had logged 166 sightings since the American Cetacean Society project opened for the season on Dec. 1. The previous high for December was 133 in 1996.

Gray whales perform a marathon round-trip migration spanning 10,000-12,000 miles. They spend the summers feeding on the ocean floor in the Bering and Chukchi seas above the Arctic Circle, and utilize three vast lagoons along Baja California for breeding and nursing.

The 166 figure is the most since 130 gray whales were spotted during December of 2004, and represents the type of numbers more typical of the second week of January, when the southbound migration begins to peak off Southern California.

NOAA Fisheries plans to conduct aerial surveys soon, to determine how many of the whales on this season's southbound migration are pregnant.

Commercial whale-watching operations, meanwhile, are sending out full boats and passengers are marveling at all the whales in their midst. Most landings have already recorded dozens of sightings. Donna Kalez, who runs Dana Wharf Whale Watching, said that the landing's first gray whale last year was seen on Dec. 23. This year it was Nov. 23.

The landing's December count in 2010 was only eight gray whales. It surpassed 30 sightings on Wednesday, and a day earlier it recorded its first sighting of a mother gray whale with her calf. Perhaps the most amazing sighting of the season was made by scuba divers off Laguna Beach. A juvenile gray whale approached the divers, who videotaped the dramatic event.

Pacific gray whales were removed from the endangered species list in 1994. The population had reached a high of about 29,000 but suffered from "unusual mortality events" in 1999 and 2000, following extremely poor feeding seasons caused by heavy ice cover and displaced food sources (gray whales feed primarily on tiny crustaceans plowed from the sandy bottom).

Between 1998 and 2000, the population dropped by more than a third, to number 18,000. It's now estimated at 20,000 and recent productive feeding seasons are helping to fuel the slow comeback.

"We're seeing them come back from that terrible time and although it's not as high as we hoped, we had a pretty good calf season last year, and we think this might be a baby-boom year," Schulman-Janiger said. "We've already spotted two cow-calf pairs, and expect to see a lot more soon."

--Images showing gray whales off Point Vicente on the Palos Verdes Peninsula are courtesy of Alisa Schulman-Janiger. The Point Vicente Interpretive Center, which is the location of the census project, is the brown-and-beige building visible in all three images