At Sea off the West Coast of Baja California
Today we spent the whole day at sea. And quite a day it was! Even before sunrise some whale blows were seen in the distance as the National Geographic Sea Bird sailed off Magdalena Island. Since they proved to be not very cooperative we decided to continue our way south. Not long after, we spotted a couple of humpback whales that breached several times far away. When we caught up with them they stopped their acrobatic displays and decided to continue their migration towards their summer feeding grounds off the West coast of the United States and British Columbia. Big swells and a gentle breeze made for a very comfortable ride; we watched several interesting birds throughout the day, including frigate birds, parasitic jaegers, Sabine’s gulls, phalaropes and Craveri’s murrelets. We also had time during the day to listen to a couple of talks about marine mammals and about ways to photograph them. And pretty soon we had the chance to practice, as a large group of long-beaked common dolphins followed the ship for a long time, to the delight of everyone on board. After a while, the number of pixels we spent photographing the dolphins could easily rival that of stars in the sky.
During the afternoon we encountered a couple of humpback whales that were engaged in some interesting behaviors, lifting their long pectoral fins up in the air while rolling belly-up in the surface, and breaching high above the water. Many more pixels later, the humpbacks were replaced by numerous blue whales. At least six or seven individuals of the largest animal species that have ever lived on this planet continued to drain our batteries and fill our memory cards, putting a wonderful end to a great day!
Today we spent the whole day at sea. And quite a day it was! Even before sunrise some whale blows were seen in the distance as the National Geographic Sea Bird sailed off Magdalena Island. Since they proved to be not very cooperative we decided to continue our way south. Not long after, we spotted a couple of humpback whales that breached several times far away. When we caught up with them they stopped their acrobatic displays and decided to continue their migration towards their summer feeding grounds off the West coast of the United States and British Columbia. Big swells and a gentle breeze made for a very comfortable ride; we watched several interesting birds throughout the day, including frigate birds, parasitic jaegers, Sabine’s gulls, phalaropes and Craveri’s murrelets. We also had time during the day to listen to a couple of talks about marine mammals and about ways to photograph them. And pretty soon we had the chance to practice, as a large group of long-beaked common dolphins followed the ship for a long time, to the delight of everyone on board. After a while, the number of pixels we spent photographing the dolphins could easily rival that of stars in the sky.
During the afternoon we encountered a couple of humpback whales that were engaged in some interesting behaviors, lifting their long pectoral fins up in the air while rolling belly-up in the surface, and breaching high above the water. Many more pixels later, the humpbacks were replaced by numerous blue whales. At least six or seven individuals of the largest animal species that have ever lived on this planet continued to drain our batteries and fill our memory cards, putting a wonderful end to a great day!
