Ocean Mission: Success!
The tiniest mobula, dolphins, dwarf sperm whale and the magical orcas!
14-24 of June, 2021
For our last big animal trip of the season we were lucky to have not one but two talented photographers on board, Eric Duran and David Serradell. We began the trip in Cabo with a fantastic day spent with bottlenose dolphins. On this particular encounter, the dolphins were very interactive and playful, sometimes having up to twenty of them riding the bow together. There were a lot of jellyfish in the water, but that didn't stop us -or the dolphins- from playing and swimming together. We also got to see at least 3 young calves and even had a little hello from an Olive Ridley Turtle as it sunned on the surface. She was so friendly and relaxed that a brown-footed booby was using her as a rest stop.
We spent the next three days in La Ventana, and the area was teeming with life! We swam with a giant school of skipjack tuna, saw two humpback whales, played with huge sea-lions, spotted a Mako shark, and countless dolphins. We were also lucky to find a big shoal of Mobula (in the shoal was the smallest Mobula I have ever seen, it was barely the size of a tortilla and it loved to breach.) As the shoal circled around us, we spotted this tiny mobula 3 or 4 times. The strangest animal we saw in La Ventana was a dwarf sperm whale with a calf; these little cetaceans grow to just 2 meters in length, are very shy creatures and we felt very lucky to have seen them.
We originally planned to take Sunday off and rest, but the ocean had other plans. We received a report that the orcas were in La Ventana, where we had just come back from spending the day...So, obviously we jumped in the car and drove all the way up there again to try our luck. After arriving, we jumped on a fishing boat and set out on the search. Sadly, the wind had picked up and it was almost impossible to find anything so we turned home feeling cold and a bit disappointed.
With just two days left we decided to try our luck in Cabo Pulmo, since that's where the orcas were heading. The conditions were not ideal but we struck gold and found an incredible pod of orcas just off the shore with a tiny calf. Because they were with a calf they were moving pretty slow and we had some lovely encounters with them. It's important to always respect the orcas and their behaviour and to never impose yourself on them. Since we were giving them space and moving the boat slowly we managed to get very close and they decided to come over to us to check us out. We made our customer Anthony's life long dream come true this day. After hours with this pod, we headed back before sunset with a huge smile on our face.
Pod of orcas and calf
Making eye contact with a baby orca is something that will stay with us forever.
Last day, and we were definitely heading out of Cabo, I had a feeling the orcas might be continuing their journey along the coast and into the Pacific and my hunch was correct. Just 30 min after leaving the marina we found them again. It was the same pod, with the same tiny calf. Once again we got to come face to face with these incredible animals.
