Bahia de Loreto, National Marine Park
A whale for breakfast. It’s what we chose, figuratively speaking, as our Hotel Manager Judie Blewitt announced breakfast at the same time that a fin whale surfaced in front of the National Geographic Sea Bird this morning.
We observed the whale surfacing several times, paying attention to the long body. Its dorsal fin in the back disappeared every time the whale dove after several blows. Finally, she [the whale] swam fast away from us. Fortunately for us, Judie had saved our breakfast!
After breakfast, we went back out on the bow as more whales were announced, more fin whales! And another whale, a bigger whale, exhaled a long tall column of water vapor. It showed a long-long body, and finally, a relatively small dorsal fin, before lifting a huge caudal fin or fluke to dive. Yes, we were in front of the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth: a Blue whale!
Blue whales visit the Gulf of California to feed on large patches of krill. The high productivity of this area allows for these giant whales to be able to consume the four or five tons of krill necessary to support their massive body.
We watched this whale surfacing again and diving again, and surfacing again and diving again. We saw two more blows of fin whales in the distance and two more blue whales as we navigated towards our afternoon destination: Isla Santa Catalina, one of the islands of the National Marine Park.
After learning about the islands of the Gulf of California with an illustrated talk by one of the Natural History Staff, Adrian Cerda, we arrived to our first island of the trip. Here, on Catalina Island, we had the opportunity to snorkel in the brisk waters around “Elephant Rock” or to hike across the picturesque island.
During the hikes, we admired a different kind of giant, the giant barrel cactus and the giant cardon, a cactus that reaches heights of 45-60 ft and weights of 10-15 tons.
It was a really big day!
A whale for breakfast. It’s what we chose, figuratively speaking, as our Hotel Manager Judie Blewitt announced breakfast at the same time that a fin whale surfaced in front of the National Geographic Sea Bird this morning.
We observed the whale surfacing several times, paying attention to the long body. Its dorsal fin in the back disappeared every time the whale dove after several blows. Finally, she [the whale] swam fast away from us. Fortunately for us, Judie had saved our breakfast!
After breakfast, we went back out on the bow as more whales were announced, more fin whales! And another whale, a bigger whale, exhaled a long tall column of water vapor. It showed a long-long body, and finally, a relatively small dorsal fin, before lifting a huge caudal fin or fluke to dive. Yes, we were in front of the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth: a Blue whale!
Blue whales visit the Gulf of California to feed on large patches of krill. The high productivity of this area allows for these giant whales to be able to consume the four or five tons of krill necessary to support their massive body.
We watched this whale surfacing again and diving again, and surfacing again and diving again. We saw two more blows of fin whales in the distance and two more blue whales as we navigated towards our afternoon destination: Isla Santa Catalina, one of the islands of the National Marine Park.
After learning about the islands of the Gulf of California with an illustrated talk by one of the Natural History Staff, Adrian Cerda, we arrived to our first island of the trip. Here, on Catalina Island, we had the opportunity to snorkel in the brisk waters around “Elephant Rock” or to hike across the picturesque island.
During the hikes, we admired a different kind of giant, the giant barrel cactus and the giant cardon, a cactus that reaches heights of 45-60 ft and weights of 10-15 tons.
It was a really big day!
