As soon as day’s dawning light penetrated rare desert overcast we began to discern the bushy angular blows of whales on the Sea of Cortez. Unmistakably, we were upon a pod of sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus the only cetacean to exhale obliquely forward out the left side of its head. The more we looked around, the more whales we observed. A quick scan with binoculars towards the horizon ahead produced a seeming wall of sporadic tilted puffs.
We had made headway through the night north up to Isla San Jose. Here at the head of the mile wide channel between the island and the Baja California Peninsula we discovered these sperm whales, the only toothed great whales. We watched several animals logging in residual swells, two-thirds their body length in view: from the continuous exhalations emanating out the corner of their boxy heads to their rounded triangular dorsal fins. At the end of a visit to the surface, the whales moved forward, arched and displayed beautiful scalloped-edged triangular flukes as they descended.
Navigation charts of these poorly sounded waters show depths in the area to over 2700 feet. Sperm whales are known to be deep divers pursuing squid species and other prey in the cold dark fathoms. Hence, the long surface intervals we observed as the whales took their few dozen recovery breaths before fluking and disappearing. Linnaeus appropriately dubbed this creature a scientific name meaning ‘long-headed blower’.
Due to their long down times it’s difficult to estimate numbers of sperm whales. We spent most of the morning watching groups of these animals resting, diving and traveling. We estimated from fifty to as many as one hundred (!) or more whales that might have been present, based on the numbers we could see at one time all around our view, the distance they were dispersed, and their proclivity for long disappearances. What an aggregation of such a square-headed, wrinkled and crenulated creature!
Adult male sperm whales are thought to disperse polewards in spring and summer returning to warmer latitudes for breeding. Females and young live their lives in maternity pods in lower latitudes. Today we were fortunate to observe young sperm whale calves, one in particular near our ship, lunging headfirst out of the water alongside its lengthy mom and switching sides as she traveled at a good clip. We entertained the notion that sperm whale females may baby-sit for each other when mother goes deep.
Eagle-eyed observers on the bridge spotted blows of a different aspect off in the distance. (One of these things doesn’t belong…) We slalomed our way through subpods of sperm whales and waited out a whale of a different color – namely blue. Here now before us were two elongated beasts of tall bushy blow, mottled steely gray flanks and petite dorsal fin – Balaenoptera musculus, the blue whale. These animals roll long backs endlessly before vanishing. One blue treated us to a display of its wide flukes as we sacrificed some folks inside at a geology lecture. Off towards the peninsula the tall columnar exhaust of other blue whales lingered. We estimated at least half a dozen of these the largest of known creatures in our presence.
As a fireworks finale to our marathon whale watching morning amongst behemoth species, a tight group of six synchronous sperm whales pulled up alongside the Sea Bird amidships. Guests and crew alike lined the rail in resounding silence and awe as these beings of the deep floated besides us, breathed, and one by one, fluked up back to the mystery below.
These otherworldly encounters were made more out of the ordinary under today’s moist Baja skies. Our afternoon visit to Isla San Francisco illustrated the painted exuberance of the desert under fresh precipitation, a proliferation of flowers, leaves and ephemerals, all flora in a fresh luster. We explored the miracle of the intertidal examining colorful nudibranchs, brittlestars, flatworms, urchins and other minutiae, in juxtaposition to the hugeness of the animals we observed in the morning. Desert hikes, kayaking along the rocky shoreline and beachstrolling were other afternoon activities we undertook at this small gulf island.
It is quite an accomplishment to find the deep diving sperm whales in your presence. As well, it is reassuring to see one of the few thousand blue whales that survive today. The Sea of Cortez offers such inspirations. Today, travelers on the Sea Bird witnessed the largest of all the toothed whales, and, the largest of all the baleen whales, and, our paths intersected all at the same time and place, in our lives.
