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
Hello whalewatchers,
Well, another remarkable day in Baja! We started with calm weather, sunny skies and a glorious sunrise at Punta Colorado, Isla San Jose. Then we had a Krazy Koastal Kruise for everyone, a walk on the island and a snorkel all before noon. There was good visabilty and lots of fish. We left in search of whales and found a Brydes whale with a calf. We followed it for a while and decided that we had great looks and would look for something else. As we were departing, the calf started breaching and that is something we haven’t ever seen before–it was incredible! After that we saw pilot whales, common dolphin, and to top it off, a big male sperm whale. We also deployed the hydrophone and heard the sonar of the sperm whale, a very distinctive clicking that varied in speed and intensity. We haven’t heard that in the past so we had two firsts today. In addition we added three species of whales to our list. We still have three days left in our trip and we have already seen 13 different species of whales .
More tomorrow,
Capt Art
Hello whalewatchers,
Another great day in Baja! We started in the Gorda Banks area and listened to humpback whales singing on the hydrophone. There were scattered bottlenose dolphin around us and a great sunrise. We saw between 30 and 40 humpback whales throughout the morning and some of their acrobatic behaviors such as breaching, flipper flapping, tail lobbing and more.
We went to Bahia Los Frailes for the afternoon and everyone went for a short walk and some people came back and got their snorkel gear went for a snorkel. The visibility was a little murky but everyone enjoyed it.
We are headed north tonight in good weather and hoping to make it to Isla San Jose.
More tomorrow,
Capt Art
Hello whalewatchers,
Today we added two more species of whales and two more species of seabirds. We found humpback whales this morning–a total of 12 whales. This afternoon we saw a blue whale and it was a fluker so everyone got great looks at both types of whales.
A red-billed tropicbird circled the boat this morning and we saw a few Craveri’s murrelets as well.
The weather is phenomenal with calm seas and we are about to see a wonderful sunset.
More tomorrow.
Capt Art
