Opportunity to enjoy and learn about great whales (16USC3703)

After reading my friend Joe Donatelli's column about how he did NOT watch whales, I made sure to keep my expectations low as we headed down to Ensenada for a Saturday of whale watching. Because they are along the gray whale migration route, many Pacific coast charter outfits shell out tours with near-guarantees that you will behold ballenes. The number of Groupons alone makes you feel obligated to take the chance on a tour. And after all, these marine mammals are a lot more fun to follow than the only wild-animal show in northeast Ohio: the buzzard migration route.

Sadly, as Joe's column attests, the oceanic sightings aren't always so stunning. But we started the day with some auspicious signs. The rainy and cloudy weather broke, putting the Baja coast in the 80s for the first time in a few weeks. Then, because of our persuasive organizer, our group was split among two boats, putting only 10 people on each deck. This allowed pretty much all of us to squeeze on the best viewpoint of the boat, the bow; our companions on the other ship took advantage of the same abundance of space.

With a more-than-four-hour tour ahead of us, we packed a picnic, complete with adult beverages. We picked up some Pacifico, which just so happened to match the name of the operation providing our tour, Pacifico Sport Fishing. After sailing for about 45 minutes into deeper seas, I snapped some shots of the "Plan B" we sipped as we tried to spy some water spouting.

Slowly but surely, we started to see movements that indicated something other than kelp. At first, the "logging" motions were a far cry from the typical whale behavior presented in Pacific Life commercials. We never did get to see a whale jump up a waterfall or over the boat Free Willy-style, but we were lucky enough to see one whale "breaching," meaning that it pushed a good portion of its body above the water, somewhat like the Pacific Life logo.

 

But of course, I didn't manage to record that with my camera, and since I can't post photos of it here, it's pretty much like the breach didn't even happen. In fact, it was quite difficult to capture what I could see through the lenses of my eyes through the lens of my camera. By a fluke, I was able to catch a couple whales "fluking," including one zoom shot that was almost in focus.

After a while, we stopped tailing the whales, because we certainly couldn't follow them all the way back to their summer homes in the north, where they were heading after giving birth further south in Bahía Sebastián Vizcaíno. As we headed back to the dock, we came across a pod of dolphins that rewarded us for our lack of resentment over how the whales kept their distance. Quite a few of them swam right along the boat, jumping and diving in front of us as if they were playing a game of chicken.

Back on shore, we topped off the trip with a few tacos, with shrimp and marlin, and a trip to the fish market, where we bought some jumbo shrimp and grouper to grill at home. Although I feel entirely fulfilled by my whale-watching adventure, I wouldn't mind getting even closer to these graceful creatures, so maybe next year we humans will migrate south to Guerrero Negro, to see them up close in their breeding grounds.