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Guest Article: Families Experience Close Encounters Of
The Whale Kind
Head to Baja to See California Gray Whales
By Nancy Schretter
issueTravel World Magazine May/June 2008
The parade started at
sunrise. I was standing on the bluff watching the inlet's colors turn to violet
when I heard the first "phoof." A mother California Gray Whale and her baby
calf were making their way through the water, less than a stone's throw away.
Suddenly, the colors of the sunrise took a backseat to what I was seeing before
me. Our little group of campers had front row seats for one of the most
beautiful and awe-inspiring shows on earth.
In less than an hour's time, four pairs of mothers and
calves slowly made their way past our campsite. Some were surrounded by schools
of dolphins, jumping and frolicking together. Others put on an acrobatic
display, breaching multiple times and then spy hopping as if to make sure we
were watching. The last pair came within several feet of the shore, so close
that we could almost feel the fine mist from their blowholes as they exhaled.
Our group stood, cameras in hand, watching the magnificent
spectacle.
Every fall, hundreds of
California Gray Whales leave their cold Artic feeding grounds in the Bering and
Chukchi Seas and journey more than 5,000 miles to Baja California's shallow
lagoons to mate and bear their calves. From our campsite along the shores of
Baja's Magdalena Bay, it was quite common to see young calves swimming next to
their mothers.
These newborns are anything but tiny. According to our
guides, the calves weigh close to a ton when they are born and are
approximately twelve to fifteen feet in size. When viewed next to their
forty-foot mothers, however, the young calves do look quite small. The whales
usually remain in Baja's estuaries from mid-January through mid-March before
returning back to Alaska.
Sea Kayak Adventure's Gray Whales of Magdalena Bay trip
offers outdoor-loving families the chance to get up close and personal with
wild California Gray Whales. Tour participants arrive and overnight in Loreto
on Mexico's Sea of Cortez before journeying across the Baja peninsula to Puerto
Lopez Mateos on Magdalena Bay. Small skiffs called "pangas" ferry group members
to the Isla Santo Domingo campsite and on daily whale watching trips. Tours
range in length from five to seven days, and sea kayaking is usually included
as part of the six- and seven-day itineraries.
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This trip is well-suited for adventurous families with
teens and college-age children, although kids as young as eight are welcome.
Although comfortable two-person dome tents and warm sleeping bags with extra
thick self-inflating pads are provided, kids should have prior camping
experience and be able to "rough it" at a campsite with no running water or
electricity. The Sea Kayak Adventures campsite has a solar shower and a porta
potty in a shelter, but there are no fresh water sources on the island. Tour
guides prepare three meals daily and special dietary needs can easily be
accommodated if notified in advance.
On our recent trip, we spent our days whale watching,
sea kayaking, beachcombing along miles of deserted beaches, and hiking in the
sand dunes. The daily itinerary varied and was based on the interests of the
group. Some days included two sessions of whale watching, while on other days
we went whale watching in the morning and sea kayaking in the afternoon. Our
group also enjoyed a full day of sea kayaking and birding in the mangrove areas
of the Bay.
Gray whales came close to our boat on every one of our
group's whale watching sessions, often with babies in tow. We watched countless
spy hops, a behavior in which the whale pokes its head out of the water, as
well as a number of impressive breaches. All of them were fantastic, but the
best was saved for last.
On our final whale watching excursion, one mother whale
and her baby calf lingered in our area for a long time. The two meandered
slowly from one panga to another, occasionally coming up and spy hopping right
next to the boat as if to get a good look at its occupants. The mother went
under one of our group's two boats to scratch her back as her baby enjoyed
being stroked. Then, they turned in our direction and the mother seemed to
shepherd her baby towards our skiff. We collectively held our breath.
At last, the mother surfaced next to our panga, almost
like a house rising out of the water. Her baby was right next to her. The two
of them hovered there, close enough for us to reach out and stroke their
smooth, silky skin. It felt soft and rubbery under my fingertips, almost like a
wet inner tube, and my hand lingered in the water. The mother turned, and for a
moment, her luminous eye caught mine. Then, the baby turned slowly and rolled
on its side, one flipper out of the water, as if to say goodbye. They moved
away, splashing and churning the water, before returning once more for a final
pat.
We were very lucky to have such a close encounter with
a pair of whales. Panga operators in Magdalena Bay abide by strict rules
prohibiting them from chasing whales, so whales approach the skiffs only when
they choose to do so. Although the gray whales of Magdalena Bay are known for
their friendly behavior, these gentle giants certainly do not perform on
command.
Sea Kayak Adventures also operates kayaking trips on
the west coast of Canada during the summer months. There, the close encounters
are with whales of a different kind. Orca whales are often seen on Sea Kayak
Adventures' Johnstone Strait and God's Pocket Provincial Park trips.
"Johnstone Strait is the best place in the world to
paddle with orcas, due to the fish funnel found in nature," says Sea Kayak
Adventures' co-owner Nancy Mertz. Salmon come in from the Pacific Ocean to the
narrowest part of the Inside Passage, called Johnstone Strait. The "northern
resident orcas" in that area eat only salmon, and they converge on the area to
feast on the fish in the summer months. In late August of last year, Nancy
Mertz says she saw about a hundred orcas in just a couple of hours in Johnstone
Strait. According to Mertz, "All the family pods get together there from
mid-July through early September to feast, socialize and hang out in the Strait
– making it a wonderful place to kayak."
Kids over 14 are eligible to participate in the
Canadian sea kayaking trips and teens ages 14-18 receive a 10% discount on
their tours. Participants must be at least 5 feet tall and weigh 100 pounds or
more in order to paddle in their double kayaks. Special family teen trips are
also held each summer.
For more information on
Sea Kayak Adventures' trips, visit their website at www.seakayakadventures.com
or call their office at 800-616-1943.
Click here for Gray Whales of Magdalena Bay
trip
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