Captain's Blog

Hello whalewatchers: We have had a busy morning outside Bahia Magdalena. We have seen gray, humpback and blue whales so far this morning, with common and bottlenose dolphins too. In addition sea turtles, boobies and more. We just concluded a session following a blue whale and due to the conditions and the fact the whale stayed close to the surface, we were able to follow the whale and see it the entire time even after it  dove. That doesn’t happen frequently where a whale stays that shallow that you can see it continuously. We spent at least an hour and a half with the whale and the last half hour it was close to the surface. Wow! Today’s picture is self explanatory. (blue whale on the bow)
Thanks to Captain Aaron for spotting that whale from about four miles away.
Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: Another great day today! We finished the day with a trip to the beach for part of the group. For those people that didn’t get enough whalewatching, there was a trip for them as well. It is always great to go to the beach and take a walk on some of the most pristine beaches in Baja–to be the only person to leave footprints that day is pretty special.
There is a dead whale on the beach so the group got a chance to see that. It measures 44 feet long. It’s sad to see mortality like that, but that is nature.
On a good note Stephen Swartz came by and reported 91 single whales and 31 cow calf pairs for a total of 153 gray whales in San Ignacio–good numbers for January 27th!
This afternoon’s picture is our pangas and a few passengers on the beach. Note the pretty weather clear skies and warm temperatures.
Headed south tonight.
Team Searcher

Hello all: We had a great day in Laguna San Ignacio with plenty of whales in the lagoon and everyone got to see all the different behaviors–mating, breaching, spy-hopping, cows and calves, and of course the whale that visited the Searcher twice today and liked the anchor line. The picture is of our visitor spyhopping right next to the boat.
The weather was great with light winds, sunny skies and a great sunrise and sunset.
More tomorrow, Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers:
Within 15 minutes of anchoring here we had a gray whale visit us and is rubbing on the anchor rope. It is a single whale and the gender is unknown until we get a better view. What a magical place this is! While entering the lagoon we had to slow daown several times to let the whales pass by. There are a lot of whales in the entrance. The weather is awewsome with sunny skies and light winds. Everyone is currently out in the pangas for their first trip.
More later, Team Searcher
My picture today is a gray whale with Chef Charles on the bow. Very cool!

Hello all,
We have had a fantastic day with great weather–sunny skies, light winds and calm seas. Everyone had a great hike on the island with lots of northern elephant seals, ospreys and the highlight was the flowers! There obviously has been enough rain to make the island green and yellow and purple with all the different plants in bloom. Island mallow, Encelia, Mammaliaria cactus, Agaves and more. What a day. There is a research project going on in full force. It seems to be a two-fold project studying alcids and savannah sparrows. There is also an effort to eradicate rats in several areas of the island.We were told the sparrows are having problems with the rats and so they have been captured and placed in an aviary behind the village. It is good that a conservation group is working on the island to preserve what is going on there. More details tomorow as we will have a disscussion this evening and gather as much detail as possible and report back.
We finished the day with a quick sighting of a humpback whale and then right at sunset (with a green flash) 10 or 12 gray whales off the south end of Cedros island.
Headed to Laguna San Ignacio! Yippee! Arriving there tomorrow after breakfast. Can’t wait. Team Searcher

Guests and naturalists (Rob Nawojchik, Steven Swartz, and Rafe Payne) on watch already this morning, looking for migrating gray whales and seabirds. Reports to follow!