Baja California
Wispy pink fingers of cloud stretched into the sky above the Sierra de la Giganta, clutching at the full moon and slowly pulling it below the horizon. To the east the sun seemed to spring up, welcoming another brilliant desert day. We were cruising north in the Canal de San Jose, scanning the calm waters in hopes of adding to our list of marine mammal species; we didn’t have long to wait. First on the scene was a solitary Bryde’s whale, a small species of baleen whale known for its habit of appearing and disappearing quite quickly. Sure enough, this one did not linger long before vanishing on some unknown whale errand, but before it left it drew our attention to the south, where, in the distance, we spotted tall columnar blows. Tall columnar blows are always exciting to naturalists and whale watchers, so we quickly steamed in that direction and discovered that under the blows were a group of five fin whales! These magnificent animals, the second largest creatures ever to have lived on earth, were busily engaged in feeding on swarms of planktonic crustaceans – either euphausids or mysids – which were clearly visible right at the surface. This meant that we could observe nearly every move the whales made, lunging and twisting, expanding and filling their pleated throats, gorging themselves on the enormous bounty of the Gulf of California. Finally, just before we left to seek new encounters, two of the beautiful leviathans surfaced slowly and blew right under our bow; we had to lean over the rail to see them!
Less than two hours later, we had cruised north to the waters between Isla San Diego and Isla Santa Cruz and the cry went up again: Tall columnar blows! This time it was our third new species of the morning, a solitary blue whale! As the crew maneuvered the Sea Bird in the bright sunshine we could clearly see the mottled gray-blue skin and fantastic musculature of this, the largest of all whales. We stayed with it as it moved south and near the northern tip of Isla San Jose it was joined by three more of its kind, all making dive after dive, and some lifting their tremendous angular flukes as they began each descent.
After a morning aboard the ship we were all ready to get ashore and stretch our legs, so during lunch we approached a beach on San Jose which proved to be the perfect setting for our afternoon excursions. Options included kayaking, swimming, tide-pooling, hiking in a lovely desert arroyo or simply relaxing on the beach. While the guests were thus engaged, I took a Zodiac up to Punta Callabozo, at the northern end of San Jose, where I slipped into the water to record further varieties of marine life with our digital video camera. Along the rocky reef there I found a wonderful variety of creatures including a gorgeous spiny lobster, an electric ray, several large green moray eels and this lovely nudibranch, the Mexican Dancer, Elysia diomede.
At last, the day came to a perfect end with delicious barbecue of salmon and ribs on the beach below the arroyo. There was good drink and good company, some singing and guitar music, bright stars and the return of the nearly full moon - easy lingering hours to contemplate all the wonders, great and small, which the Gulf had shared with us today.
Wispy pink fingers of cloud stretched into the sky above the Sierra de la Giganta, clutching at the full moon and slowly pulling it below the horizon. To the east the sun seemed to spring up, welcoming another brilliant desert day. We were cruising north in the Canal de San Jose, scanning the calm waters in hopes of adding to our list of marine mammal species; we didn’t have long to wait. First on the scene was a solitary Bryde’s whale, a small species of baleen whale known for its habit of appearing and disappearing quite quickly. Sure enough, this one did not linger long before vanishing on some unknown whale errand, but before it left it drew our attention to the south, where, in the distance, we spotted tall columnar blows. Tall columnar blows are always exciting to naturalists and whale watchers, so we quickly steamed in that direction and discovered that under the blows were a group of five fin whales! These magnificent animals, the second largest creatures ever to have lived on earth, were busily engaged in feeding on swarms of planktonic crustaceans – either euphausids or mysids – which were clearly visible right at the surface. This meant that we could observe nearly every move the whales made, lunging and twisting, expanding and filling their pleated throats, gorging themselves on the enormous bounty of the Gulf of California. Finally, just before we left to seek new encounters, two of the beautiful leviathans surfaced slowly and blew right under our bow; we had to lean over the rail to see them!
Less than two hours later, we had cruised north to the waters between Isla San Diego and Isla Santa Cruz and the cry went up again: Tall columnar blows! This time it was our third new species of the morning, a solitary blue whale! As the crew maneuvered the Sea Bird in the bright sunshine we could clearly see the mottled gray-blue skin and fantastic musculature of this, the largest of all whales. We stayed with it as it moved south and near the northern tip of Isla San Jose it was joined by three more of its kind, all making dive after dive, and some lifting their tremendous angular flukes as they began each descent.
After a morning aboard the ship we were all ready to get ashore and stretch our legs, so during lunch we approached a beach on San Jose which proved to be the perfect setting for our afternoon excursions. Options included kayaking, swimming, tide-pooling, hiking in a lovely desert arroyo or simply relaxing on the beach. While the guests were thus engaged, I took a Zodiac up to Punta Callabozo, at the northern end of San Jose, where I slipped into the water to record further varieties of marine life with our digital video camera. Along the rocky reef there I found a wonderful variety of creatures including a gorgeous spiny lobster, an electric ray, several large green moray eels and this lovely nudibranch, the Mexican Dancer, Elysia diomede.
At last, the day came to a perfect end with delicious barbecue of salmon and ribs on the beach below the arroyo. There was good drink and good company, some singing and guitar music, bright stars and the return of the nearly full moon - easy lingering hours to contemplate all the wonders, great and small, which the Gulf had shared with us today.
