That's My Story

WHALE WATCHING – Published Feb. 04 – Western Outdoor Magazine Feature Article

With a sputter and pop the 55 horsepower outboard of Captain Rodrigo’s 22 foot panga (Mexican skiff) purred to life and we pulled away from the short dock at Lopez Mateos. The little pueblito on the shallow shores of Bahia Magdalena on the Pacific Coast of Baja, Mexico is normally just a collection of colorful cinder-block houses and storage shacks for the fishermen and their families, but today, it was a bustle of activity.

“Muchas ballenas ahora!” (Lots of whales now!) smiled Captain Rodrigo as he grinned and pointed his craft out and across the strait that separated his village from the series of sand dunes that make up the major part of the bay in this area. More like a giant-slow moving river at this point than a major seaway covering hundreds of square miles, the bay was literally only a hundred yards wide and perhaps only 20-30 feet deep moving languidly among the sandbars, shoals and mangroves that lined the shores.

It didn’t take long. Capt. Rodrigo slows the boat.

We could hear the yells from some of the other boats as nine-year-old Emily Duncan from Santa Barbara suddenly pointed, “Look! Look! There’s one of them!”

Swiveling around in my seat, camera at the ready, I hadn’t been fast enough but in the glassy greenish seawater, a giants’ “footprint” was clearly visible in the water. I hadn’t seen a whale, but the huge swirl, as if a huge hand had swept beneath the water, was excitingly evident. I was quicker next time as just ahead of the swirl the huge gray and barnacle-mottled body of a 30-foot California gray whale rose with barely a ripple moving in-no-particular-hurry and 15 feet of dark-charcoal dorsal parted the waters. Collectively, our boat ooh’d and ahh’d!

“That’s incredible!” said Emily’s father, Bob, as he tried to take a photo. I could hear squeals and excited talk from many of the surrounding pangas as several other whales could be seen in the area as well. “Oh wow! Look! It’s coming to the boat! ” said Jorge Romero of La Paz sitting on the starboard side of the panga as he cautiously backed away from the gunwale and the rest of us rushed to the side he had just vacated. Gazing down and now 2 feet below the surface, a baby whale of perhaps only 12 feet seemed to have turned on it’s side and was eyeing the boat. A bump near the bow that lifted the boat a with a thump and a larger body scraped and passed by…and by…and by as we pointed excitedly into the water. It was like watching the sides of a slow-moving train go by as you sit at the train stop. (When does the caboose get there?) Mom had arrived!

Raising her head in an activity called “spy-hopping” mom appeared to be checking us out, her huge eyes barely blinking as she just hung and suspended some 6 feet of her head out of the water vertically. She must have given the OK, because both she and the smaller calf were shortly rubbing themselves against the boat and alternately lifting their heads (faces?) out of the water to be petted, scratched and rubbed. Occasionally, one or the other would lift and eye out of the water and you couldn’t help but think there was a connection.

“I think the baby just winked at me!” yelled a delighted Emily, as she rubbed the nose of the baby.

“Except for the barnacles, I can’t believe how soft their skin is!” said her father. As a boat owner in California and an experienced sailor, he had seen numerous whales, but had never encountered anything like this as over the next 2 hours, we saw perhaps a hundred whales and were able to touch several dozen friendly or curious enough to come to the boat.

The area around Lopez Mateos was ideal for this. It’s slow moving waters protected by sand dunes created a virtual flume for the whales to pass through on their way to and from the large and more open parts of the bay.

“This just exceeds all expectations. What an unbelievable experience!” commented Bob Duncan. He started to say more, but suddenly, two more whales appeared off the bow with one making a sudden dive displaying the classic flukes of it’s tail just in time to be captured in Bob’s camera. “It’s so different here. Unlike the open ocean, the bay is so shallow, they can’t dive away. There’s also so many of them and many are seemingly so tame they come right up to the boats. This is a lifetime event.”

It hasn’t always been like this. By the turn-of-the-century, the whaling industry had tragically decimated the gray whale and brought it to the brink of extinction. Even today, remnants of carcasses can be found among the lonely blasted sand dunes in this part of the Baja. However, through conservation efforts, the whales have made an outstanding comeback and now numbers between 20 and 40 thousand. In what has been called the longest migration of any mammal, the whales begin their long journey from the Bering Sea in the frigid waters of the north and begin heading south along the Pacific Coast of North America. By January, they begin arriving at their 3 main destinations along Baja, Mexico’s Pacific Shorline. The areas of Scammons Lagoon, Guerrero Negro and here in Bahia Magdalena offer warmer, protected, shallow waters for the whales to mate as well as give birth. Quiet little towns such as Lopez Mateos literally boom during whale-watch season as tourists, scientists, photographers and school kids pile into small skiffs to see these great creatures.

“Everyone should do this,” I heard one teacher say to her charges clearly still excited and chattering happily after climbing out of their boats. “It helps people understand the need to protect such creatures and there’s no better time than when we can make an impact on the children.”

At first, the whales are leery of the boats early in the season. However, by February, the cetacean visitors seem more tolerant and almost appear to enjoy the daily company of so many two-armed and two-legged visitors with their cameras clicking and whirring. Females are less reluctant to come between their curious calves and the pangas. Males seem to enjoy a good nose rub. When they get tired of us, one flick of the tail and they move on or like a living submarine, they fill their “ballast” tanks and simply sink out of sight. The leviathan simply disappears below the surface. However, almost like clockwork, another often appears.

The whales will be around until March or early April then head back north along the coast. Trips can be arranged by a number of operators and it’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

That’s my story…Jonathan