Sunrise found the Sea Bird moving north along the Baja peninsula with Isla Monserrate off our starboard side. We had been traveling through calm waters all night and morning conditions continued to be smooth and pleasant. The sun began to peek over Isla Monserrate turning the Sierra de la Giganta a soft shade of reddish orange. The Baja peninsula has several sets of mountain ranges running along nearly it’s entire eastern coast. Deep shadows began to form on these mountains of the mainland of the Baja peninsula. The islands of the Gulf of California located both north and south of the Sea Bird were also decorated in odd shadows and early morning colors. The sun rose quickly, bringing more light and more heat to this glorious early morning.
With these excellent spotting conditions it was not long before the first marine mammal of the day was found…a large columnar blow was spotted in the distance. Great excitement was felt on the bow, as the natural history staff confirmed the sighting of the planet’s largest mammal, a Great Blue Whale. The Sea Bird made a slow approach as this enormous animal surfaced, blew seven or eight times and then dove for at least eleven minutes before returning to the surface once again to breath. We find the blue whales and many other marine mammals in this area because of the high productivity resulting from an upwelling of nutrients from the depths of the Gulf of California. The nutrients allow the plant plankton to thrive which then feed the zooplankton that become the food for the whales. A lone blue whale can consume four tons of zooplankton in a day and that’s about 40,000,000 individual little animals!!
We remained with this blue whale for some time while keeping watch on some very strange splashes spotted in the distance. Whatever was moving rapidly through the water could not be determined. The Sea Bird picked up speed and began moving south towards the southern tip of Isla Monserrate. Soon we noticed that one animal was lagging behind the rest of the group and this gave our Natural history staff enough time and a close enough look to identify False Killer whales! It was a very rare find indeed, and the second of our morning’s sightings of marine mammals. First mate Emily was at the helm bringing the Sea Bird up to the same pace of these fast moving animals. Soon our vessel was keeping an identical speed as the False Killer whales while they continued their southerly journey. To add to the visual feast, a hydrophone was dropped off the bow of the Sea Bird, and we could then hear what these bulbous headed whales were discussing! An array of squeaks in several tonal ranges came across the PA much to the delight of everyone on the bow!
During the observation of the False Killer whales, eyes had been kept busy watching this intensely rich feeding area. Off in the distance what appeared to be a very large group of marine mammals were making quite a display of splashes. We began approaching and sure enough, there were hundreds and hundreds of Common dolphins. There were adults, babies, couples all running hard, leaping and generally creating an incredible display of water acrobatics! Once again the Sea Bird was maneuvered into perfect position, and we found ourselves, literally surrounded by Common dolphins. Their sounds echoed through the hull of our ship, reminding us of another world, the sea and it’s inhabitants. For the next hour we moved in and around this shoal of dolphins…we photographed, we listened, and we watched as hundreds of Common dolphins surrounded the Sea Bird, rode the pressure wave created by the bow of our ship and continued what appeared to be pure dolphin frolic; mile after mile through the waters of the Gulf of California.
