Up close

 Thursday March 6:  wildlife up close!

This morning we continued north, towards our goal of San Pedro Martinez, an island created by a raised sea mount near the middle of the Gulf.  Sea mounts often have steep slopes down into deeper water, encouraging the mixing of warm surface and cold deep water and creating nutrient rich areas.  The nutrients attract many different species both in the ocean and in the air. 

San Pedro Martinez hosts the largest breeding colony of blue-footed boobies in the world.  It also hosts the largest breeding colonies of cocos boobies, brown pelicans, and red-billed tropicbirds in Mexico.  Ironically, all those seabirds also mean that the island has immense deposits of guano, which was actively mined up to  and during WWI for fertilizer and gunpowder. 

We saw all of the aforementioned birds, as well as two kinds of storm petrel, two kinds of gulls, cormorants, murrelets, phalaropes and  terns as we approached the island. At the island we found huge colonies of sea lions and pods of bottlenose dolphins.  As we waited on board the ship for our turn at a zodiac ride, we saw a “split, heart-shaped whale blow”… the telltale sign of a gray whale! There was a pair of them— a very rare sighting. The first time any of this staff saw a gray whale in the gulf of California was a year ago and much further south. We watched the whales for a long time.

On our zodiac ride, we enjoyed bottlenose dolphins bow-running between zodiacs! We also got up close to the sea lions colonies and saw two Guadeloupe fur seals.  It is unusual for the fur seals to be at this location. Throughout the cruise, hearing the calls and sounds of each different creature ( birds and mammals) was fascinating and added to the experience. Being at water surface level also provides a whole new perspective. 

Pictured: Guadeloupe fur seal, bottle nosed dolphin, gray whale fluke, red-billed tropicbird