At Sea & Bahia Loreto Marine Park
Though our expedition leader Michelle Graves made a valiant attempt to allow us a morning sleep-in, by sunrise we were surrounded by a huge pod of long-beaked common dolphins - leaping through the rose and azure dappled water, riding the bow, leaping in our wake and altogether being perfectly captivating. There were a few mother dolphins with tiny football sized newborns and even those wee ones were able to keep up with this swift group of perhaps 1500 animals.
Today is the spring equinox and the Gulf of California has been warming, especially in the past three weeks. The food resource in this area must be truly bountiful. As the National Geographic Sea Lion cruised south this morning, we began to encounter blue whales that were feeding just beneath the sea’s surface. Altogether we observed six or seven of these massive animals within a square mile around the ship. One whale that was moving slowly very near the bow would blow, then drift just under the surface, opening its throat pleats to engulf tons of water and krill. It was so near we could track the glowing aquamarine of its slightly submerged slowly-swimming seventy-foot long body until it surfaced for another breath.
A long beach of fine pale sand on the north end of Isla Monserrate in the Bahia Loreto Marine Park was chosen for an afternoon landing. Snorkeling and beachcombing under the warm desert sun were perfect choices for our last afternoon’s activities. Berit Solstad, shipboard naturalist and mermaid, brought up two Mexican dancer nudibranchs for us to enjoy. These colorful, lacy, marine seaslugs without shells were abundant on this shallow rocky reef, and we loved learning about these very unusual animals.
What an incredible week has unfolded around us while we were watching the great whales and observing the natural wonders of Baja California and the Sea of Cortez.
Though our expedition leader Michelle Graves made a valiant attempt to allow us a morning sleep-in, by sunrise we were surrounded by a huge pod of long-beaked common dolphins - leaping through the rose and azure dappled water, riding the bow, leaping in our wake and altogether being perfectly captivating. There were a few mother dolphins with tiny football sized newborns and even those wee ones were able to keep up with this swift group of perhaps 1500 animals.
Today is the spring equinox and the Gulf of California has been warming, especially in the past three weeks. The food resource in this area must be truly bountiful. As the National Geographic Sea Lion cruised south this morning, we began to encounter blue whales that were feeding just beneath the sea’s surface. Altogether we observed six or seven of these massive animals within a square mile around the ship. One whale that was moving slowly very near the bow would blow, then drift just under the surface, opening its throat pleats to engulf tons of water and krill. It was so near we could track the glowing aquamarine of its slightly submerged slowly-swimming seventy-foot long body until it surfaced for another breath.
A long beach of fine pale sand on the north end of Isla Monserrate in the Bahia Loreto Marine Park was chosen for an afternoon landing. Snorkeling and beachcombing under the warm desert sun were perfect choices for our last afternoon’s activities. Berit Solstad, shipboard naturalist and mermaid, brought up two Mexican dancer nudibranchs for us to enjoy. These colorful, lacy, marine seaslugs without shells were abundant on this shallow rocky reef, and we loved learning about these very unusual animals.
What an incredible week has unfolded around us while we were watching the great whales and observing the natural wonders of Baja California and the Sea of Cortez.
