The Mainland of Baja California and Isla San Jose, Mexico
The further South we sailed, the warmer the waters of the Gulf of California. Our undersea specialist, Carlos Navarro, jumped in the water as soon as we saw the bait ball of fish. With the underwater camera he filmed one of the most fantastic scenes: a fish bait ball of jack mackerel being attacked by Crevalle jack, black skipjack tuna and two large mahi-mahis, also called dolphin fish, or “dorados” in Mexico. While in their hunting mood, mahi-mahi showed a striking pattern of bold black vertical stripes (see photo). A constant milling of hundreds of these fish tried to evade their predators by trying to seek protection around him! And they did not really succeed, as the big predatory fish kept on attacking them, and even striking the undersea specialist! During the cocktail hour we enjoyed the movie of this food chain in action.
Eventually we made it to our morning’s anchor site, at Puerto Gato, where we kayaked, snorkeled and hiked into the desert to enjoy the local flora and fauna (mostly birds and jackrabbits). Underwater we saw many small fish, especially baloonfish and sea stars of different varieties.
After lunch we kayaked and hiked on Isla San Jose, with a magnificent backdrop of reddish sandstone and phosphorite. The sandstone included enormous amounts of fossil shells, and near the beach we were awed by the fossil bones of early whales and sea turtles. Just a really full day!
The further South we sailed, the warmer the waters of the Gulf of California. Our undersea specialist, Carlos Navarro, jumped in the water as soon as we saw the bait ball of fish. With the underwater camera he filmed one of the most fantastic scenes: a fish bait ball of jack mackerel being attacked by Crevalle jack, black skipjack tuna and two large mahi-mahis, also called dolphin fish, or “dorados” in Mexico. While in their hunting mood, mahi-mahi showed a striking pattern of bold black vertical stripes (see photo). A constant milling of hundreds of these fish tried to evade their predators by trying to seek protection around him! And they did not really succeed, as the big predatory fish kept on attacking them, and even striking the undersea specialist! During the cocktail hour we enjoyed the movie of this food chain in action.
Eventually we made it to our morning’s anchor site, at Puerto Gato, where we kayaked, snorkeled and hiked into the desert to enjoy the local flora and fauna (mostly birds and jackrabbits). Underwater we saw many small fish, especially baloonfish and sea stars of different varieties.
After lunch we kayaked and hiked on Isla San Jose, with a magnificent backdrop of reddish sandstone and phosphorite. The sandstone included enormous amounts of fossil shells, and near the beach we were awed by the fossil bones of early whales and sea turtles. Just a really full day!
