SEA OF CORTEZ,
- NEWS FROM THE 2009 TOUR 03/03/2009

We sub-title this tour ‘the Serengeti of the Sea’ to give an idea of just how abundant marine life, and in particular cetaceans, are in the waters either side of Baja California. Our 2009 trip aboard the Spirit of Adventure was as spectacular a success as any of our previous trips there. It is hard to give a picture of just how amazing this tour is, though taking a look at the gallery for this tour which should be up on our website shortly might give you some insight. The bare facts from the 2009 trip were about 430 whale sightings, thousand upon thousand of Dolphins, 9 turtles of 3 species, Mako Sharks, Manta Rays, all sorts of wonderful colourful fish, moray eels, octopuses, sea slugs, sea hares, sand dollars…

Our encounters with sea lions and fur seals were memorable but one of the giants amongst this clan, the Northern Elephant Seals stand out. Watching new born pups suckling whilst the blubbery bulls sparred was captivating, not to mention noisy and smelly! The seabirds were exceptional with some great Albatross sightings and abundant shearwaters including the uncommon Short-tailed, Petrels included Cook’s, and on a ferry journey the day after the tour Least, Black and Galapagos Storm Petrels. There were four species of Booby, tropicbirds, various auklets and murrelets, and some great sightings of endemic landbirds such as Xantu’s Hummingbird and Gray Thrasher.
But back to the whales. It was really the quality of our encounters that stands out. Mike, the captain of the Spirit, is remarkable in his ability to get us so close to whales, the best in the business we would say. The sight of a Blue Whale lunge-feeding right in front of the boat was simply awesome. Repeatedly the great whale rose out of the water, turning onto its back as it did so, the many-pleated throat rapidly returning to its normal form as tonnes of water flowed out. Mike did exceptionally well to have us right by that amazing spectacle. Another day a Humpback Whale was lying on its side thwacking the water with its fifteen foot long fin. Mike sidled up to it and we watched spellbound as this animal, a beautiful creature almost entirely white on undersides of the tail, fins and half the throat, continued to relax and enjoy itself. Then, just like a puppy that had found someone to play with it started breaching repeatedly right in front of us. In brilliant sunshine this made for exceptional photography. Twice, as the afternoon sun gradually sank behind the mountains lining the San Jose channel, we found ourselves amongst a huge group of Sperm Whales, somewhere between 50 and 70 in number. They leave their babies on the surface as they dive deep and we saw little groups of babies with individual adults or sub-adults almost like a crèche. Once, a baby found itself the wrong side of the boat as its mum came up, and hurried round to meet mum, coming right under the bow and arching its back to look up at us as it went past! Baby cetaceans were everywhere it seemed. In the Gray Whale calving lagoons at San Ignacio we saw very new youngsters, their skins still all wrinkly. Several of the mums nudged their youngsters up towards us in our pangas. It seems even the youngest of Gray Whales are bought out to touch the humans these days! We had an amazing experience as an adult male and an adult female lined up next to us in our little panga. They both had their heads there for some good rubbing and they both turned slowly over on their backs as we rubbed. Quite extraordinary to be stroking the combined total of eighty tonnes of whale from our little 8 person boat! A female Gray Whale always adopts the Spirit during our stay here and stays close to its anchorage the whole time, playing with the anchor rope and generally having a good look at everyone. This female liked to spy hop and so any walk round on deck and you could suddenly find the front end of whale sticking straight up out of the water just a hundred metres from the boat. Particularly good from the windows whilst we ate lunch, we thought!
We encountered Bryde’s Whales, a Fin Whale, a couple of Dwarf Sperm Whales, and during the ferry journey some of us took across the Sea of Cortez the day after the tour, five Pygmy Sperm Whales, a rarely seen species. One day in Magdalena Bay we spent almost the entire day with at least some dolphins in sight and there were other days when we saw thousands too. Mike was adept at getting them bow-riding and we sometimes had hundreds coursing through the super-clear water with us. One of the highlights of the trip was certainly Mike’s early morning ride in the San Jose Channel when, with an intense starry sky showering meteors we had bow-riding dolphins trailing fireworks of biophosphoresence in their wake. Sublime.
In 2010 we’ll again be offering the Sea of Cortez tour, the dates being March 10th – 23rd. This tour is always very popular and there are only five trips a year with Mike’s Spirit of Adventure, so whether with us or another operator better reserve your places quickly!