We woke up anchored at the vicinity of Laguna San Ignacio (San Ignacio Lagoon), one of four breeding lagoons for Baja California gray whales along the Pacific coast of the Baja California Peninsula. Gray whales are type of baleen whale, and they happen to perform one of the largest migrations among mammals. The newborn gray whales start out in the warm, protected waters of these Mexican lagoons. They are reared by their mothers for the better part of three months before they begin migration north, which involves traveling between 6,000 to 7,000 nautical miles, one way! They will follow the coast of North America to spend the summer in cold waters off the Bering and Chukchi Seas, feeding on benthic amphipods from the bottom of the sea floor. Then, at the end of fall, they will return south to their breeding grounds in Mexico to begin the process again.
- Daily Expedition Reports
- 02 Feb 2019
San Ignacio Lagoon, 2/2/2019, National Geographic Venture
- Aboard the National Geographic Venture
- Baja California
Octavio Maravilla, Naturalist
Octavio was born in Mexico City and moved to La Paz at age 19, to study Marine Biology at the Baja California Sur State University. He began his field research on California sea lions, working at Los Islotes, a small rookery close to La Paz City. Lat...
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