Can’t Get Enough of Those Whales

What is it about whales? Everywhere we go, we’re on the “hunt” for and are mesmerized by whale sightings. At home on Puget Sound (Washington state in the U.S.A.), we have occasional orca whales swim past our beach in the winter, and in the vicinity while we’re on boating trips in the summer. On a 2008 trip to South Africa we were thrilled to find hundreds of Southern Right Whales not far east of Capetown. On a summer 2009 boat trip up the Inside Passage between home and Ketchikan, Alaska, we saw many species of whales, in large numbers, and were excited every time. During each of our two previous winters in Baja, we stopped on the Pacific side for a day trip to see gray whales who give birth in the Baja lagoons, and last March went on a day trip in the Sea of Cortez to see some of the world’s few blue whales.

Today we did it again. Fernando, who works at the Whale Museum in Loreto, has a panga (Mexican fishing boat, usually 24-26 feet in length) and takes up to 5 people out to see the blue whales when they’re in the vicinity, usually January through March. We went out with him last year, and enjoyed it so much we proposed to Doug and Jill that we go again this year. .

Sadly, today we saw blue whales at such great distance that it was only their enormous blows (spouts) and one tail fluke that we can claim. However, we did find two adult fin whales in the area and were able to view them at close range for close to an hour. They were 45-55 feet long according to Fernando, have a small dorsal fin, and were in such a shallow channel of the Sea that they were unable to make deep dives, so we saw no spy-hopping, breaching or tail flukes. But their blow holes are enormous (as seen in the photos), and as always, we were in awe. We saw lots of other whale spouts (Blues, and probably fins, humpbacks or grays) in the distance, but not other whales themselves.

Today was windier than normal, and Fernando was uncomfortable enough at one point that he was uncertain we’d continue the trip. We were in 4-foot waves with whitecaps and spent 6 hours on the water. Following seas heading south back to port were pleasant, but otherwise it was a bit exciting in our little panga!