Boca de Soledad
What would a great day look like here in the northernmost end of Bahia Magdalena? Hmm, maybe it would like today – a bit of early morning fog to clear the air and then calm seas, blue sky and sunshine all day long. How about long lines of double-crested cormorants heading off to look for food or brown pelicans skimming the sea’s surface? Endless untracked sand dunes and beaches strewn with colorful shells? Whales you say? You’d like to see whales….get close to whales. Have the experience of a lifetime and touch a whale. Here in the Boca, the mouth of solitude, dreams can be fulfilled.
Zodiacs bobbing gently in calm waters. California gray whales with week-old calves moving past, the sharp sound of whale blows in every direction. Our boats move apart, come together, share the excitement of this fantastic scene. These whales have swum 5000 miles to enter this protected place and birth the next generation. They will stay only eight weeks and transform the lives of the locals and visitors alike with their annual winter visit. This year is especially wonderful as the number of whales in the lagoon is higher than average. Today in the area we are traveling, we estimate about 30 adult animals, perhaps 20 with calves. At an average of 40 tons each, that’s a lot of biomass!
Over our handheld radios comes a brief excited announcement. One of the boats has encountered a mother whale with her young calf and she, the mom, is interacting with the Zodiac and its guests. From that moment on, our day moves into the realm of the magical. The phenomena of friendly whale behavior began in 1975 in San Ignacio lagoon when a California gray whale approached a fisherman in his Zodiac and nearly frightened him to death! Since then stories and ideas about why an animal hunted nearly to extinction would initiate friendly contact with humans have circulated, but what we know right here today, is that there is nothing that can compare with making contact with a creature as glorious as this one, the California gray whale. That’s what a great day looks like here in Magdalena Bay.
