An integral part of whale watching, Capt. “We call them our Christmas whales,” said Podolak, of Adventure Whale Watching . Advertisement“I would go so far as to boast that California has some of the best whale watching in the world,” said Ted Cheeseman, a Santa Cruz whale researcher and co-founder of Happywhale, a photo-based whale identification platform. The captain identified it as a gray whale, with their distinct white patches of clinging barnacles. Whale researcher Cheeseman says well-managed whale tourism raises public awareness and financially supports whale science and conservation.