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Hello whalewatchers,
We started our trip with some great sightings before we got to our first destination of Islas Todos Santos. I hope this an omen for things to come on this trip! We saw our first whale right after leaving our Mexican clearance in Ensenada, and it was a blue whale! I don’t recall seeing blue whales this far north at this time of the year. After a while we lost track of the blue whale as the conditions were very gray with the early light and overcast. We saw another whale and thought it might be the blue whale, but it was a fin whale and so we spent time with the fin. We had great looks at both whales and that was before 8 am.
We travelled to Islas Todos Santos and saw some pinnepeds: northern elephant seals and harbor seals. There were also oystercatchers and nesting brown pelicans .
We left there and started south. We soon came across a group of Risso’s dolphins and had great looks at them. Travelling a little further south, we saw another smaller group of Risso’s.
The highlight of the afternoon was an area of surface feeding fin whales. One group of five whales in particular stayed at the surface for a long time and we had them close to the boat. They were feeding on the big balls of krill. There were hundreds of Cassin’s auklets in the area too. We had to break off and continue south to keep to our schedule.
We did see a small group of short-beaked common dolphin, a red-billed tropic bird and a laysan albatross in the distance.
What a remarkable day for our first day! Looking forward to tomorrow at Islas San Benito.
Capt Art
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There were 135 gray whales counted that day: 61 single whales and 37 mother/calf pairs. Here is video from one of those single whales, filmed from Searcher during Tour #1:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1MnYk4NXWE
Video by Steve Lamb of http://www.wrongwaylamb.com
We are leaving tonight and so the blog will begin again tomorrow! Elephant seal mother and pup from last trip. Photo taken by Steve Lamb @ wrongwaylamb.com.
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Go to “Gallery” and click on the Tour #1 folder—friendly gray whales, sunrises, and pilot whales.
Here’s just one (click on “more” button below)
Hello all,
Today we are in the Gorda Banks area to look for humpbacks. Windy conditions further north weren’t good for whalewatching so we moved south. We started our day with a very large herd of common dolphin and then we added yet another species to our list. We saw a sei whale and got great looks at it. We thought it was a smaller fin whale but after looking at some great photos we determined it was definitely a sei whale.
We saw humpbacks over a large area. We were spotting mostly single whales until we came across a group of five whales and we stayed with them for quite awhile. Unfortunately the wind came up and the conditions made it hard to stay with the whales. We elected to go to Los Frailes and drop the anchor where it was calm.
We have seen 14 different species of cetaceans this trip for a total of 19 marine mammals (whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions).
What a trip! Looking forward to the next one,
Capt Art
Hello whalewatchers,
We started our day with a trip into the mangroves at the south end of Isla San Jose. The tide was right and everyone enjoyed the trip very much–lots of bird life. After that we went ashore at Isla San Francisco for a nice beach walk. We decided to adjust the itinerary and go to Los Islotes and play with the sea lions. Several people snorkeled and that was good. The skiff ride was enjoyed by all as well.
We are going to travel south and hope the weather is good around the Gorda Bank area for watching humpback whales. Everyone loves humpbacks and we know there are plenty of whales there!
More tomorrow,
Capt Art
Hello whalewatchers,
We had a change in the weather today and found ourselves in some windy conditions. But in our calm anchorage, we had a wonderful morning at Isla SantaCatalina. There is a nice walk in the arroyo and a snorkel for those who chose to go. They had good visibility and saw lots of fish. For those who didn’t snorkel, there was a Krazy Koastal Kruise with Kaptain Kenny. They saw some bottlenose dolphin, Sally lightfoot crabs and lots more.
After leaving the island, we couldn’t whalewatch very effectively. We did see a fin whale cow and calf and a few pilot whales. We saw other whales in the distance but we couldn’t head their direction. There are plenty of whales around and hopefully tomorrow we will have better weather to work in.
More tomorrow,
Capt Art
