San Pedro Mártir & At Sea
Calm seas greeted us this morning as we approached the most remote island of the Gulf of California. San Pedro Mártir is among the largest breeding colonies of blue-footed boobies in the world. This ancient volcano is surrounded by deep productive waters, and this is the place where we spent the day. Exploring the shore by kayak or Zodiac granted us closer looks at some of the inhabitants of this distant rock. Protected from terrestrial predators, thousands of birds find sanctuary on this scenic island. Red-billed tropic birds, brown pelicans, Brandt’s cormorants, yellow-footed gulls, Heermann’s gulls, blue-footed and brown boobies are some of the species that we could see today. The island is not only important for the birds, but it is also an important California sea lion breeding colony. Here the productivity of the gulf becomes evident, this place is simply exploding with life beneath and above the surface.
We set sail to look for marine mammals, and ten minutes after leaving San Pedro Mártir behind, a group of sperm whales was spotted. A small group of about six individuals was just the overture to the show of nature, where hundreds of sperm whales, bottle-nosed dolphins, and sharks offered us today.
Today we experience the most spectacular sightings of sperm whales right under the bow. Not only did we get great looks, but as they surfaced one on top of the other, we could listen to their clicking sounds, very seldom audible from the surface.After this amazing experience we continued cruising south into the horizon as the sun hid behind the mountains.
Calm seas greeted us this morning as we approached the most remote island of the Gulf of California. San Pedro Mártir is among the largest breeding colonies of blue-footed boobies in the world. This ancient volcano is surrounded by deep productive waters, and this is the place where we spent the day. Exploring the shore by kayak or Zodiac granted us closer looks at some of the inhabitants of this distant rock. Protected from terrestrial predators, thousands of birds find sanctuary on this scenic island. Red-billed tropic birds, brown pelicans, Brandt’s cormorants, yellow-footed gulls, Heermann’s gulls, blue-footed and brown boobies are some of the species that we could see today. The island is not only important for the birds, but it is also an important California sea lion breeding colony. Here the productivity of the gulf becomes evident, this place is simply exploding with life beneath and above the surface.
We set sail to look for marine mammals, and ten minutes after leaving San Pedro Mártir behind, a group of sperm whales was spotted. A small group of about six individuals was just the overture to the show of nature, where hundreds of sperm whales, bottle-nosed dolphins, and sharks offered us today.
Today we experience the most spectacular sightings of sperm whales right under the bow. Not only did we get great looks, but as they surfaced one on top of the other, we could listen to their clicking sounds, very seldom audible from the surface.After this amazing experience we continued cruising south into the horizon as the sun hid behind the mountains.
