Last updated: May 2026
SoCal Whales is a free resource for anyone planning a whale watching trip in Southern California. This page explains how the site earns revenue, as required by the Federal Trade Commission's guidelines on endorsements and testimonials (16 CFR Part 255).
This site is not currently affiliated with any booking platform or operator. The "Book Now" buttons link directly to each operator's own website — no commission is earned, no tracking parameters are added, and the price is exactly what you'd see going there directly.
If affiliate links are added in the future to help cover platform costs, they will be clearly labelled as such so you always know when a link earns a commission.
SoCal Whales displays advertisements served by Google AdSense. AdSense is a program run by Google that lets publishers earn revenue by showing ads alongside their content. Ads on this site are selected and served by Google, not by SoCal Whales. Google labels its ads clearly — you will typically see an "Ads by Google" or similar notice near each ad unit.
This site earns a small amount of revenue from ad impressions (the number of times an ad is displayed) and ad clicks (when a visitor clicks on an ad). The revenue helps cover hosting costs and the time it takes to maintain the scraper and data pipeline.
To serve relevant ads, Google may use cookies and browsing data, including your prior visits to this site and to other websites. The most significant of these is the DART cookie, which Google uses for interest-based advertising across its network. You can manage or opt out of personalised advertising at any time:
Opting out means ads may still appear — they will simply not be personalised to your browsing history. Google's full privacy policy is available at policies.google.com/privacy.
All sighting data on this site is sourced from publicly available trip reports published by whale watching operators on their own websites. The automated scraper collects this data daily without any manual selection or editorial override. Operators are not contacted, paid, or otherwise involved in the data collection process.
The species guide, whale watching tips, and ocean conditions information are written to help visitors make informed decisions about when to book a trip — not to promote any particular operator or booking platform. No advertiser or affiliate partner has reviewed or approved any of this content. No operator has paid to be featured on this site.
The "Good Day to Go" composite score is calculated from three data signals: recent sighting counts (last 48 hours), wave height, and wind speed. The algorithm does not factor in affiliate commission rates, advertising relationships, or any commercial consideration. A day with poor conditions and low sightings will score low regardless of which operators have trips available.
If you believe any content on this site is inaccurate or misleading, please reach out through the About page. We will investigate and correct errors promptly.