I arrived in late February (later than usual) to reports of lots of
whales, blue whales in particular. The sightings seemed to be earlier
than usual,
was it a good sign or a bad one? My first day on the water was Feb.
26th and
it was a short 4 hour day at sea. We encountered 9 blue whales in that
short
time and all the signs were that we had another fantastic season before us.
We
never would even in a full day see that many blue whales again in one day.
The sightings were consistent for the next 10 days or so, 4-8 blue whales
every
day, with about the same number of finbacks, and 1-3 humpbacks were sighted
almost daily as well. The dolphin numbers seemed to be down a bit and
the
afternoon wind seemed to be up a bit, every morning was calm but always some
wind
from some direction came up in the afternoon. Manta Rays were mostly
absent,
as were sea turtles, we did encounter some impressive fish balls with
attendant throngs of diving seabirds and patrolling sea lions.
Suddenly just as the prime blue whale time arrived and numbers sighted
daily should have risen they instead dropped, now into mid March we were
seeing
2-3 per day, every day and we also were seeing red squid by the tens of
thousands in the water feeding on the visible krill swarms just near the
blue whales
who were also feeding on the same swarms of krill. Within a few days
the blue
whales had vanished (was it the squid which competed for the krill and which
the blue whales do not care to eat?). Fabulous humpback displays
ensued and
the dolphins were now present in their usual vast numbers. The whales
had
almost all been "on edge" earlier in the season and now it seemed
that we
encountered many "easy going" whales, a real pleasure. The
afternoon winds persisted,
we visited gorgeous bays , and two times went to the seaside
hot springs down south...in another Secret Spot.
So we had roughly 20 different blue whales this year and 3 were calves
from 2003 who returned as juveniles. We had no cow/calf blue whales
this year,
but did have cow/calf finback, humpback and Brydes whales. We had a
marvelous
encounter with the Short Finned Pilot Whales one day. It should also
be noted
that there was massive damage to the marina in Loreto from the 2 hurricanes
of last
September, and the associated rains made the desert around Loreto greener
than I
ever imagined it could be, with the canyons full of clear freezing cold
fresh
water pools.
Thanks to all who joined me this year and who knows what 2005 will bring!
We wish all the whales well in their journeys between now and then.
