FacebookTwitterYouTubeInstagram

Captain's Blog

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Isla San Francisco and Sea of Cortez

Howdy whalewatchers,

This morning we went ashore Isla San Francisco for an exploration walk and returned to go in the water for a snorkel. The swimmers had really good visibility and saw lots of garden eels, sergeant majors, giant damselfish and cornetfish, just to name a few.

We’re having lunch while on the anchor and moving up further into Sea of Cortez this afternoon.

Our on-board experts in Ocean Plastics: Jo Ruxton and Bonnie Monteleone.

Howdy “blue whale lovers,”

We are enjoying a nice break from some windy weather and saw our first blue whale!

We’re off to our next destination for tomorrow and hoping to capitalize on the calm seas in our future.
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:27-07:00February 1st, 2018|Trip Reports|
Read More

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – offshore Cabo San Lucas, Los Frailes

Howdy whalewatchers,

Even more humpback whales to observe today! We got to see the things that humpbacks do breaching, flipper flapping, and tail lobbing.

Flipper flapping!

The weather was nice this morning, but the wind has come up so we’re headed to Los Frailes to go for a beach walk and the first snorkel of our trip.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 31st, 2018|Trip Reports|
Read More

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – offshore Bahia Magdalena

Howdy whalewatchers,

It is a great morning here outside Bahia Magdalena, with breaching humpback whales, a few hundred long-beaked common dolphins, magnficent frigatebirds, masked and red-footed boobies, black-vented and pink-footed shearwaters. Oh, and green sea turtles for days! It’s a beautiful day on the ocean with barely any wind and clear sky.

Long-beaked common dolphins offshore Bahia Magdalena

Howdy whalewatchers, We’ve enjoyed steady sightings of humpbacks for most of the day. The weather is still very nice and we’re happy about that. We start our trek up into the Sea of Cortez tomorrow.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 30th, 2018|Trip Reports|
Read More

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Laguna San Ignacio, day 2

Howdy whalewatchers,

We’re enjoying another beautiful morning here in the lagoon. The wind was up, but the spirits of going out to see a gray whale were even higher. It seems like there are more whales in the lagoon today, and we still have a whale rubbing on the anchor line giving a nice show to passing pangas and for those that chose to stay on the boat. The weather is getting better all the time so the afternoon passengers will have a nice outing.

Howdy whalewatchers,

It’s our final day in the lagoon and the wind backed off to make our final two trips nice. More whales are entering the lagoon so there was lots to look at. The group went to the the beach for a afternoon walk.

We’re now headed south to offshore all day looking for wildlife.

Capt “Howdy” Aaron and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 29th, 2018|Trip Reports|
Read More

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Laguna San Ignacio, day 1

Howdy whalewatchers,

We are enjoying a good first day here in Laguna San Ignacio. We are seeing courtship activity with the single whales that have arrived, along with the mother and calf pairs interacting. The weather is great!

It was a good afternoon for us here in the lagoon. the weather stayed nice for us. Everyone got a really close look at a few gray whales were gonna be here again tomorrow.

While the guests were out in the smaller pangas, the crew enjoyed a visitor at the boat!
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Editor’s note: They said good-bye to Dr Steve Swartz, as he left to set up his seasonal research camp in the lagoon. We look forward to receiving his updates from the field, as always. He is a treasure to us and to the gray whales.

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 28th, 2018|Trip Reports|
Read More

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Islas San Benito

Howdy whalewatchers:

We had a fantastic day at San Benito island today! The weather was perfect and there was lots to see. The group saw northern elephant seals, Guadalupe fur seals, and California sea lions. For plants, there was San Benito tarweed, cholla, island mallow, and agave.

Here is a picture of the island before we anchored.  We are still also seeing lots of southbound gray whales in our travel south. We’re headed to be in Laguna San Ignacio tomorrow.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 27th, 2018|Trip Reports|
Read More

UK’s “The Telegraph” gets touched by Baja

Journalist Mike Unwin travelled aboard Searcher to Baja California last year. His article was just published and we think it’s pretty awesome! Treat yourself to a read about the whales, cacti, night sky, personalities and more Baja “touches.”

(Photo courtesy of Mike Unwin and Getty Images)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/articles/cruising-mexico-baja-california-whale-watching/

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 26th, 2018|News|
Read More

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Offshore Ensenada, heading south

Howdy whalewatchers,

After our required immigration stop in Ensenda, we went to Islas Todo Santos for a brief look at elephant seals hauled out on the beach, and soon we saw our first whale!

Bull elephant seal and his harem, Islas San Benito

It was a southbound gray whale, and there were many more gray whales to be seen throughout the afternoon, all headed south. We’re also headed south in hopes of seeing some more life. The weather is great and we’re excited about what’s ahead.

Afternoon report

Common dolphins @ Sally Walton

We’ve seen lots of southbound gray whales this afternoon, and we had a brief look at a pair of Bryde’s whales. The finishing touch for the day was a large herd of short-beaked common dolphins that rode off into the sunset alongside Searcher.  We’re headed south for tomorrow’s activities.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Passengers resting up for the next exhausting whale sighting!

Editor’s note: We received the gray whale census in Laguna San Ignacio for January 18: There were 11 mother/calf pairs and 8 singles, for a total of 30 whales. The next census will be completed this week. Then numbers should grow as we are seeing large groups of gray whales migrating past southern California now.

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 25th, 2018|Trip Reports|
Read More

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Depart San Diego

Passengers arrived throughout the day, greeted by our San Diego sunshine. After meeting fellow passengers and naturalists, sharing a cup of tea aboard Searcher, and maybe enjoying a beer and fish taco at Mitch’s Seafoods, the boat departed for Mexican waters and a wildlife adventure to remember!

Library is ready for whalewatchers.

We are pleased to be hosting Jo Ruxton (director, A Plastic Ocean) and Bonnie Monteleone (executive director at Plastic Ocean Project), both experts in the field of plastics in the ocean and education, as special guests for this tour.

Stay tuned to this space for all the wildlife highlights and photos sent in by the crew.

Mugs are ready for morning coffee.

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 24th, 2018|News, Tours|
Read More

Rob-servations #13: Harbor Seals

The harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) is one of four species of pinnipeds regularly found in the waters around Baja California (for a discussion of pinnipeds in general, please see my Rob-servations Blog #10). Harbor seals are members of the pinniped family Phocidae, as is the northern elephant seal, another Baja pinniped species. All members of this family share various traits that help distinguish them from the other major group of pinnipeds, the family Otariidae (which includes the California sea lion and Guadalupe fur seal, also found in Baja. See photos below for comparison).

Guadalupe fur seal

California sea lions

Harbor seals (and other phocids) lack an external ear flap, have relatively small front flippers (compared to otariids), cannot rotate their hind flippers forward, hunch along awkwardly when on land, and primarily use their hind flippers and bodies when swimming underwater (see Blog #10 for more details).

As a general rule, phocids tend to have little to no sexual dimorphism, while otariids are characterized by having sexual dimorphism. The term “sexual dimorphism” refers to the differences between male and female members of a species. Many people equate the term with differences in body size, but the term also encompasses other differences, such as the bright colors in some male birds, or the antlers in male deer. Harbor seals fit the typical model for phocids, in that male and female harbor seals are generally indistinguishable by size. (The BIG exception to the lack of sexual dimorphism in phocids is the elephant seal.) When examining dead harbor seals on the beach, I can tell male from female by the relative positions of the genital aperture and anus. When viewing live harbor seals in the wild, however, we rarely get that close a look and consequently cannot distinguish male from female. Harbor seals in the Pacific Ocean can sometimes get a bit larger than six feet (1.82 meters) but are usually less than 300 pounds (136 kilograms) in weight.

Harbor seals are the most widely distributed of all 33 pinniped species. They inhabit both the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans, and are typically found along both coasts of North America, northeastern Asia, and northern Europe (including the United Kingdom). Ironically, of the four species of pinniped seen on our Baja trips, the harbor seal is among the least likely to be seen. The reason for this is that the Baja peninsula is the southernmost range limit of eastern Pacific harbor seals. Much of our tour takes us south of and beyond the range of harbor seals.

The best chance to see harbor seals during our Searcher Natural History Tours is during the first two full days of the trip. On the morning of the first full day, after clearing Customs in Ensenada, Mexico, we sail past a group of islands called Todos Santos. From the Searcher, we can see many species of birds, as well as any pinnipeds associated with the islands. We sometimes see harbor seals hauled out on the beach or bobbing in the water.

The second full day of the trip is spent at the San Benito Islands, specifically at West San Benito Island. We sometimes see harbor seals here. However, because the San Benito Islands are close to the southern limit of eastern Pacific harbor seals, we see harbor seals here less frequently than we do at the Todos Santos islands. Once we depart the San Benito Islands and continue even further south, we almost never see harbor seals again. The southernmost haul-out site for eastern Pacific harbor seals along the Baja peninsula is San Roque Island, about 110 miles (176 km) southeast of the San Benito Islands. However, our cruise track does not take us close to this island.

Much of the haul-out behavior of harbor seals in Baja is related to the annual molt, in which old hair is shed. Loss of body heat is high during the molt, so seals mitigate some of this heat loss by hauling out on land, rather than remaining in water (the rate of heat loss is greater in water). The annual molt cycle is triggered by photoperiod. Thus, seals at more southerly locations start molting first, and the timing of molting then progresses northward. For example, molting occurs at San Roque Island from February to June, while molting occurs at Todos Santos Island from April to July. Because seals are more likely to be hauled out while molting, researchers use the peak of the molting season to conduct population census counts of seal numbers. Harbor seals also haul out for pupping and nursing. Pupping season provides another opportunity for researchers to make population counts. Most pupping by harbor seals in Baja occurs in February and March.

All four species of Baja pinnipeds were subject to commercial exploitation during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Now, with the cessation of hunting, and with legal protections, these species, including the harbor seal, are recovering in numbers and are repopulating their historical range. Although harbor seals may not be a “target species” for many eco-tourists to Baja, it’s always wonderful to see them, especially considering their recovery from exploitation.

–Rob Nawojchik, marine biologist and Searcher naturalist

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 18th, 2018|Rob-servations|
Read More

Baja Whale

Captain's Blog

Categories

Archives

x
Go to Top