Cruising the Gulf of California Searching for Marine mammals & An Afternoon at Isla Santa Catalina
As the sun rose to the east over the Gulf of California the National Geographic Sea Bird was making her way gently north along the western side of Isla Carmen. If one peeled away the water of the Gulf of California in this location, one would find a shelf or enormous drop-off diving deeply into the sea forming an escarpment as impressive as the Sierra de la Giganta (mountains) along the eastern side of the Baja peninsula!
During several months of the year, nutrients from the depths of the sea floor are brought up to the surface by sea currents called up welling. These nutrients meet the light of the sun at the surface of the sea and a great web of food and predators begin to interact forming the foundation of all marine life. In this rich environment a diversity of marine mammals come to feed, including both toothed and baleen whales. These waters just off of Isla Carmen are known for high productivity due to extremely deep waters, providing all the right conditions for phytoplankton and zooplanktons to form a pyramid of food and predators moving towards the largest mammal on the planet. The National Geographic Sea Bird continued her meandering, led by natural history staff on the bow, giving directions according to what was spotted. Short-finned pilot whales were spotted late in the morning. They surfaced in the customary chorus line; their blows could be heard from some distance as this group of whales surfaced, dove under the National Geographic Sea Bird and came up on the other side of the bow….back and forth, these whales continued making short dives, then resurfaced to watch all of us, as we watched these curious and active toothed whales.
Conditions were excellent for spotting marine mammals; and as a reward the largest mammal on the planet was also cruising these waters. The extremely tall blow was spotted at some distance. Shortly after an announcement, we made our way to the bow and watched as a blue whale approximately 80 feet long surfaced, took a long laborious blow, and made a shallow dive as we watched more and more and more of the modeled bluish-grey body move through the water; a tiny insignificant dorsal fin passed by, a raised tail stock and then a huge movement of water as this enormous whale disappeared under the surface of sea.
As the sun rose in the sky we were all called into the lounge for a talk on marine mammals perfectly timed for a plethora of questions. Our past days had been filled with experiences seeing, hearing, sometimes smelling and photographing the richness in marine life of the waters surrounding the Baja peninsula. As questions flew left and right, the National Geographic Sea Bird continued heading east towards our afternoon destination of Isla Santa Catalina.
After lunch had been finished, our afternoon activities were ready to begin. Snorkelers were brought to an anchored Zodiac just off of Elephant Rock, an outcropping located off the east side of Isla Santa Catalina. While snorkelers explored the undersea world, an intrepid group of long hikers headed out for a three-hour hike to one of the peaks of Santa Catalina. This unusual island is located 30 miles off the coast of the Baja peninsula. Its isolation, distance and different geology has added to and helped create one of the most interesting and striking displays of plants and animals, including several endemics.
We were brought ashore during perfect late afternoon light and each group watched as the golden light just before sunset decorated a truly flamboyant stand of extremely healthy cardons, the columnar giants of the southern Sonoran Desert. Standing close by were giant barrel cacti, found only here, a truly weird and very tall barrel cactus. Dark reddish flowers adorned the tops of many of these giants adding a dash of color to the mammoth cacti forests many of us found ourselves walking through, with great care!
Until the sun set over the Sierra de la Giganta, many of us remained on shore watching the shadows and colors change. Aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird, the rest of our group gathered on the top deck; with ceviche and margaritas. As the sun set, conversation became very lively as, once again we shared stories from one more day exploring this unique part of the world, where the desert meets the sea.
