Cabo San Lucas
We found music in the sea today down at the bottom of the Californias. The Sea Bird made her way from the Sea of Cortez to the Pacific Ocean where swell patterns kissed and crossed each other, where humpback whales sang at aqueous crossroads.
An elongate reef cornetfish stared unblinkedly at snorkelers maintaining motionless in confidence of its barred camouflage. This long cousin of the curled sea horse ambushes unsuspecting small prey that peer down the barrel of its vacuum hose body. As the cornetfish holds food agape in its mouth it assumes the appearance of the musical wind instrument that gives it its name.
Music from the sea resounded through our p.a. system this morning as we picked up the wildly imaginative serenade of a humpback whale on our hydrophone system. We listened live to the sirening groaning squeaking wailing vocalizations of a whale right near our ship. As ears on board were awed by the mysterious melodies, we pondered recent advances in research on the famous humpback whale song. Why do all singers in an ocean basin all sing the same ever-changing tune? Do these musical males sing to establish hierarchies, to create floating leks, to connect populations, to tell stories of their whalekind or just because they enjoy it? We ask ourselves why humans sing.
We listened and watched the fluking and breaching humpbacks through the morning on our way to an afternoon of snorkeling, hiking and birding at Cabo San Lucas. Towards sundown we departed this southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula, frigate birds circling over the granitic crumble of Land’s End. As the last bit of a fully round sun departed cleanly below the horizon it flashed green and we headed into the Pacific with the sounds of the sea in our minds.
We found music in the sea today down at the bottom of the Californias. The Sea Bird made her way from the Sea of Cortez to the Pacific Ocean where swell patterns kissed and crossed each other, where humpback whales sang at aqueous crossroads.
An elongate reef cornetfish stared unblinkedly at snorkelers maintaining motionless in confidence of its barred camouflage. This long cousin of the curled sea horse ambushes unsuspecting small prey that peer down the barrel of its vacuum hose body. As the cornetfish holds food agape in its mouth it assumes the appearance of the musical wind instrument that gives it its name.
Music from the sea resounded through our p.a. system this morning as we picked up the wildly imaginative serenade of a humpback whale on our hydrophone system. We listened live to the sirening groaning squeaking wailing vocalizations of a whale right near our ship. As ears on board were awed by the mysterious melodies, we pondered recent advances in research on the famous humpback whale song. Why do all singers in an ocean basin all sing the same ever-changing tune? Do these musical males sing to establish hierarchies, to create floating leks, to connect populations, to tell stories of their whalekind or just because they enjoy it? We ask ourselves why humans sing.
We listened and watched the fluking and breaching humpbacks through the morning on our way to an afternoon of snorkeling, hiking and birding at Cabo San Lucas. Towards sundown we departed this southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula, frigate birds circling over the granitic crumble of Land’s End. As the last bit of a fully round sun departed cleanly below the horizon it flashed green and we headed into the Pacific with the sounds of the sea in our minds.
