Isla San Marcos & Santa Rosalia
To many of us, this voyage offers one of the greatest marine mammal viewing opportunities, as the Gulf of California contains over one-third of the marine mammal species in the world. Today was another fantastic experience that added to our amazing encounters.
At sunrise, we were in glassy waters between the islands of Tortuga and San Marcos and were surrounded again by feeding long-beaked common dolphins. They were joined by both Least and Black Storm-petrels, along with the abundant boobies and pelicans. Keen eyes spotted some distant angular blows, and we motored along to investigate. Large brown backs with a forty-five degree blow were diagnostic of sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales. Soon, we started seeing more and more whales, and we were completely surrounded by logging sperm whales, spending many minutes at the surface.
We slowly approached a group of eight calves and females, and were entertained by their curiosity and acrobatics as they rolled and cavorted with each other. Then, they magically all lifted their flukes high, and synchronized their dives back to the depths in search of squid. One very interesting observation was the constant accompaniment by bottlenose dolphins. They surrounded us for the entire morning, darting about amongst the whales, at times within only a few feet of each other.
As the morning progressed, we were lucky to encounter and approach a few huge male sperm whales. The females reach forty feet, but the males are true behemoths, reaching nearly sixty feet in length and incredible girth. We inched close to a single male, and were overwhelmed by the immensity of him. To have such close looks at “Moby Dick” while being surrounded by at least 50 other sperm whales and their constant companion bottlenose dolphins is something that no one will soon forget.
We have had many fantastic sightings on this trip and hope for many more, as long as we “keep our whale karma clean.”
To many of us, this voyage offers one of the greatest marine mammal viewing opportunities, as the Gulf of California contains over one-third of the marine mammal species in the world. Today was another fantastic experience that added to our amazing encounters.
At sunrise, we were in glassy waters between the islands of Tortuga and San Marcos and were surrounded again by feeding long-beaked common dolphins. They were joined by both Least and Black Storm-petrels, along with the abundant boobies and pelicans. Keen eyes spotted some distant angular blows, and we motored along to investigate. Large brown backs with a forty-five degree blow were diagnostic of sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales. Soon, we started seeing more and more whales, and we were completely surrounded by logging sperm whales, spending many minutes at the surface.
We slowly approached a group of eight calves and females, and were entertained by their curiosity and acrobatics as they rolled and cavorted with each other. Then, they magically all lifted their flukes high, and synchronized their dives back to the depths in search of squid. One very interesting observation was the constant accompaniment by bottlenose dolphins. They surrounded us for the entire morning, darting about amongst the whales, at times within only a few feet of each other.
As the morning progressed, we were lucky to encounter and approach a few huge male sperm whales. The females reach forty feet, but the males are true behemoths, reaching nearly sixty feet in length and incredible girth. We inched close to a single male, and were overwhelmed by the immensity of him. To have such close looks at “Moby Dick” while being surrounded by at least 50 other sperm whales and their constant companion bottlenose dolphins is something that no one will soon forget.
We have had many fantastic sightings on this trip and hope for many more, as long as we “keep our whale karma clean.”
