'Humpback comeback' in Salish Sea wows whale watching companies

A West Coast whale watching association is reporting unprecedented sightings of large groups of humpback whales near Victoria and Port Angeles, Wash.

Whale watching groups arecalling the phenomenonthe "humpback comeback" in the Salish Sea.

"None of us in all of our years working with whales and living in this part of the world have ever seen this kind of number of humpback whales in any time that we've been here," said Michael Harris with the PacificWhale Watch Association.

Harris says humpbacks were virtually gone by 1966, the year commercial whaling stopped in local waters.

"They were listed under the Endangered Species Act for many years, and they were down to about 1,600," he said.

"Now they have bouncedback to about 21,000 in this north Pacific population that we see. That's a lot of whales."

ThePacificWhale Watch Association represents 38 companies, and he says none of them have ever seen such a high number of humpbacks at one time.

Harris says the Pacific Coast saw a similar bounceback with grey whales to the point that some experts thought they may have gotten to the point where there are too many of them given the amount of food available.

But for now, he calls the humpback comebacka success.

"They're ... exploding out of the air and acting like they're comfortable and they belong here," Harris said.

He says it's difficultto say if the numbers will continue to increase.