And rightly so, for the waters surrounding Baja California abound with an amazing variety of these giant mammals. Most of the great whales have evolved survival strategies that include long migrations, months of fasting, and voracious feasting in very localized areas. As such, whale activity along the opposing shores of the Baja Peninsula contrasts markedly. Two of our trips travel the western shore, in sheltered lagoons along the Pacific Ocean. Making an annual migration of up to 6000 miles, these 50-foot animals take refuge in protected Baja lagoons during January and February.
Winter is their season for birthing, nursing young, and rowdy breeding.
Sighting gray whales occurs several times each day on these trips. Our other two Baja trips travel the eastern shore of the peninsula, along the Sea of Cortez. This isolated sea is one of the last sanctuaries for the globally decimated blue and fin whales. Sometimes we saw whales on only a single occasion but on other trips we had the fortune of seeing them nearly every day. In normal years, our schedule coincides with vast blooms of plankton that draw the hungry whales in to gorge, sometimes in great numbers.