Cruising, Searching for Marine Mammals & Shore BBQ at Puerto Ballena
Our morning wake-up came early this morning. The National Geographic Sea Lion was cruising in the southern end of San Jose Channel. The sun rose at 6:42am washing the Sierra de la Giganta and a particular headland called Cabeza Mechudo in red, orange and yellow. The volcanic layers that make up this mountain range were painted in early morning light and shadow, along with still airs and excellent conditions for the beginning of our morning search for marine mammals. Officers and staff on the bridge had spotted several large columnar blows just before sunrise and with the added first rays of sunlight it was confirmed, we were in the presence of our planet’s largest mammal. Due to the extremely calm conditions, blue whales could be heard breathing in several directions.
Slowly the NG Sea Lion began making her way towards a pair of blows; one smaller, one taller, confirming our natural history staff member’s guess of a cow/calf pair of blue whales. The mother would surface once while her youngster surfaced at least three times taking air into its much smaller lungs. As the sun rose, many of us on the bow counted five separate tall columnar blows all around the southern entrance of San Jose Channel.
This body of water lies between Isla San Jose and the Baja peninsula and is known for very deep waters and, at this time of year, extreme upwelling of nutrients from those deep waters. Looking over the bow, in the early morning light, we could see the waters were full of life. The sonar on the bridge of the NG Sea Lion was picking up a prey layer, obviously what was drawing these blue whales to this spot! As if on cue, one of the blue whales we were watching turned on its side and appeared to lunge through the food rich waters. It was breakfast time in the Gulf of California.
As our day progressed, a vertical migration of prey continued its usual daily journey. As the sun rises each day, the prey layer goes deep to avoid predation, and as the sun sets the prey returns closer to the surface assuming safety, only to have these five blue whales we have been watching lunging over and over across the surface of the Gulf of California feeding on clouds of very tiny, protein rich organisms called krill. Blue whales can consume as much as six tons of krill each day.
Along with watching lunging, we also found that at least two of the five animals present would sound and show their flukes. Each whale would surface, take several breaths (a sound that filled the air around us) then, slowly begin an arched dive, showing its tiny insignificant dorsal fin and then slowly the massive fluke would appear, a waterfall flowing off the tail until the whale descended and finally all 80 feet of animal would dive into deep waters.
Our officers on the bridge continued excellent maneuvering around the whales and on several passes the cow/calf pair rose to the surface very close to the NG Sea Lion. The mother came to the surface and took her customary breaths while her youngster decided that a closer look at the large noisy object floating above was in order. Taking a breath, descending in a shallow dive this “tiny” blue whale continued towards the bow of the NG Sea Lion. About 50 feet off of the bow, the baby blue dove in slow motion just under our bow showing us its entire length. We could see the shape of its head, the small pectoral flippers and its beautiful fluke as this baby of earth’s largest mammal dove under us, leaving a vibration of magic, cheers and smiles all across the bow of the NG Sea Lion.
There are many encounters with the natural world that are possible, but in these first hours of our day, this was truly a visual feast, a gift and a reminder of words about Baja California, by Joseph Wood Krutch from his book The Forgotten Peninsula: “One reason people come here is that there is still a sizable minority who find a vanishing world, dominated by nature rather than man, one thing worth seeing…..”
Our morning wake-up came early this morning. The National Geographic Sea Lion was cruising in the southern end of San Jose Channel. The sun rose at 6:42am washing the Sierra de la Giganta and a particular headland called Cabeza Mechudo in red, orange and yellow. The volcanic layers that make up this mountain range were painted in early morning light and shadow, along with still airs and excellent conditions for the beginning of our morning search for marine mammals. Officers and staff on the bridge had spotted several large columnar blows just before sunrise and with the added first rays of sunlight it was confirmed, we were in the presence of our planet’s largest mammal. Due to the extremely calm conditions, blue whales could be heard breathing in several directions.
Slowly the NG Sea Lion began making her way towards a pair of blows; one smaller, one taller, confirming our natural history staff member’s guess of a cow/calf pair of blue whales. The mother would surface once while her youngster surfaced at least three times taking air into its much smaller lungs. As the sun rose, many of us on the bow counted five separate tall columnar blows all around the southern entrance of San Jose Channel.
This body of water lies between Isla San Jose and the Baja peninsula and is known for very deep waters and, at this time of year, extreme upwelling of nutrients from those deep waters. Looking over the bow, in the early morning light, we could see the waters were full of life. The sonar on the bridge of the NG Sea Lion was picking up a prey layer, obviously what was drawing these blue whales to this spot! As if on cue, one of the blue whales we were watching turned on its side and appeared to lunge through the food rich waters. It was breakfast time in the Gulf of California.
As our day progressed, a vertical migration of prey continued its usual daily journey. As the sun rises each day, the prey layer goes deep to avoid predation, and as the sun sets the prey returns closer to the surface assuming safety, only to have these five blue whales we have been watching lunging over and over across the surface of the Gulf of California feeding on clouds of very tiny, protein rich organisms called krill. Blue whales can consume as much as six tons of krill each day.
Along with watching lunging, we also found that at least two of the five animals present would sound and show their flukes. Each whale would surface, take several breaths (a sound that filled the air around us) then, slowly begin an arched dive, showing its tiny insignificant dorsal fin and then slowly the massive fluke would appear, a waterfall flowing off the tail until the whale descended and finally all 80 feet of animal would dive into deep waters.
Our officers on the bridge continued excellent maneuvering around the whales and on several passes the cow/calf pair rose to the surface very close to the NG Sea Lion. The mother came to the surface and took her customary breaths while her youngster decided that a closer look at the large noisy object floating above was in order. Taking a breath, descending in a shallow dive this “tiny” blue whale continued towards the bow of the NG Sea Lion. About 50 feet off of the bow, the baby blue dove in slow motion just under our bow showing us its entire length. We could see the shape of its head, the small pectoral flippers and its beautiful fluke as this baby of earth’s largest mammal dove under us, leaving a vibration of magic, cheers and smiles all across the bow of the NG Sea Lion.
There are many encounters with the natural world that are possible, but in these first hours of our day, this was truly a visual feast, a gift and a reminder of words about Baja California, by Joseph Wood Krutch from his book The Forgotten Peninsula: “One reason people come here is that there is still a sizable minority who find a vanishing world, dominated by nature rather than man, one thing worth seeing…..”
