Two weeks of ocean magic
Mobulas, orcas, fin whales, dolphins…and donkeys!
14-28 of May
Our first summer expedition started with 4 days in the sea of Cortez searching for our favorite rays, the Mobula Munkiana. We hit the jackpot on the first day with incredible interaction with a pod of six orcas. The orcas had been spotted feeding earlier and were very interactive with us. They played on the bow of the boat and swam alongside us belly up. This belly-up behavior shows that they were playful and enjoying the interaction, showing vulnerability. We had some great in-water interactions with these incredible animals.
Beautiful shoals of mobulas
For the next three days, we spent all day searching for the mobulas and were lucky enough to find huge shoals swimming in shallow water, as well as a lot of breaching and mating behavior. On our last day in La Ventana, Martha Palas -marine biologist and founder of the Mobula Conservation Project- joined us for the day and talked to us about the research they are conducting and the tools they use to learn more about these marvelous creatures.
Next, we headed to La Paz, with a pit stop to visit some very entertaining local donkeys and horses. Our Ocean Safari was focused on finding fin whales, the second largest animal on the planet and we were lucky enough to find about 10 fin whales on our first day! These animals have a very calm and elusive behavior, we observed them from the boat and with the drone as they dove to eat. It is so incredible to see these ocean giants in their most natural undisturbed state. We managed to find the fin whales every day, which was a big success!
Fin whale. Second largest animal in the world.
On the last day of the trip, two marine biologists from an organization in La Paz called Marine Megafauna and Fisheries (MMAPE) joined us on the boat to conduct some research on these very interesting whales. They taught us about their behavior and shared some curious facts such as the asymmetric coloring on their heads. During this outing, they managed to measure and take photo ID’s of 10 individuals as well as take 2 different biopsies. During our time on safari in La Paz, we also got to encounter sea lions, common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and most surprisingly MOLA MOLA (also known as Sunfish). We have heard stories of encounters with mola mola in the sea of Cortez, but these fish are very very rare and often stay at depth. It was a VERY exciting surprise to be able to swim with one.
Overall it was an amazing first trip, we saw so many big animals and had encounters that we know will last our guests a lifetime.
