San Ignacio Day 2 – Coughing & hacking, romantic intentions and poor eyesight
Today's title sounds like a date at the local senior center.
After a fitful night sleeping on a cot and going in & out of being freezing cold or blistering hot in our safari style tent, we loaded up on drugs - all legal, food, cameras and weather-appropriate clothing, before heading to the beach to board the small pangas that would take us out into the lagoon in search of whales. Pangas are small open fishing boats with 3-4 bench seats and powered by outboard motors. Our group of 12 whalers was broken into 2 groups of 6 on each boat.
With well over 100 pair of mother/calves in the lagoon, we didn’t have too tough of a search. The lagoon is about 4 miles wide at its widest and 16 miles long, but 80% of it is closed off to boats and acts as a sanctuary for moms with newborn or very young calves. Most of the ones we encountered were about 2 months old and getting ready to begin the long 6000 mile trek back to Alaska.
| A typical panga out in the lagoon | Full grown whale approaching the boat |
With so many pairs of whales to choose from, it became a search for ones that would approach us. Often with mom’s encouragement and our calling the calf over to us like it was our own pet dog, they would swim right up to the boat, allowing us all a chance to rub and pet their heads. Not to be outdone, mom would occasionally come up as well. Having a multi-ton whale stick their head up out of the water for the express purpose of being petted is quite a unique and memorable experience. When the little guy pops its head out of the water, a multitude of hands reach forward in an attempt to touch it's surprisingly smooth and soft skin. It has the texture of a wet watermelon that has a soft spot on it - it's still firm but has a bit of give to it. Just watch out for the barnacles, they can be sharp!
| A young calf approaching the boat | The huge thrill of petting a whale! |
These types of whales are surprisingly known as ‘friendlies’. If mom tends to be a ‘friendly’, their calves generally will be as well and then pass that trait on to future generations. Throughout our morning session spent out on the water, we had a number of these fantastic encounters with everyone giving multiple head rubs. This late in the season, the vast majority of whales left in the lagoon are moms/calves. All the horny males have headed back north to cool off in the chilly Alaskan waters, only to gorge themselves on crustaceans vacuumed up off the sea floor in preparation for next years trip.
In San Diego, the typical whale watching trip is on 60'-100' fishing boats packed with up to 100 guests. US, federal guidelines state the closest you can approach a whale is 100 yds., but you can get closer only if the whale approaches you, or surfaces close by. Even at 100 yds, having a mammal the size of 3 subway cars swim by is quite impressive. When that same subway car sized mammal is 10' or less from the boat, it's quite a rush. Knowing they are fully conscious of your presence and then can turn-on-a-dime to move away from you, shows just how graceful and aware they are.
| Mary & Chrissy cuddle up with a calf, with mom somewhere close by | "No! No! Don't leave us! Come back you sweet little calf!" |
The whale watching industry in Mexico is surprisingly well regulated. Boats are allowed only 90 minutes on the water in both the morning and afternoon session. Before you enter the whale watch area, you check in with the person in charge and when your time is up, they radio the boat and say ‘Adios amigos’. Along with the time limit, they only allow 16 boats into the lagoon at one time, unlike Scammon’s or Magdalena Bay, the two other areas in Mexico the whales migrate to, where they issue 100 permits in each lagoon.
Lunch – Fish tacos, rice, refried beans, cucumbers and fruit
On our afternoon ride the whales apparently caught on to our ruse – Mary & I weren’t really whales singing out our romantic intentions to them, but just a couple of sick touristas, coughing and hacking, so we only had 1 very brief encounter, but saw quite a few ‘spy hops’ or ‘heads up’. This is where the whale sticks its entire head 10-15' straight up out of the water in what looks like it’s checking things out. For a number of years, the common thought was they used this for navigation – head up, look around “OK, there’s La Jolla Cove, so we only have 547 more miles to go”. Slide back down in the water and swim off. Recently, they’ve found whales have very poor eyesight out of water, so now they don’t have any idea why they do it. This seems to be quite common lately, that long held thoughts and beliefs have been shot down when put under more scrutiny. Whatever the reason, it's really cool to see!
| Mom spy hopping, or a heads up | Acrobatic display between 2 of the boats |
If you turn the volume up on your computer, you can hear us on the boat as we interact with the whales.
Dinner: Chicken stir-fry, fresh flour tortillas, apple and jicama salad, with cheesecake for dessert. Margaritas & piña coladas as an appetizer, and our day was complete