Please go to “Gallery” on this web site to see Terry Hunefeld’s great video (with music and tailored captions) of the recent pelagic birding tour. There are a few selected photos from Steve Lamb (our resident cook and photographer) as well. Enjoy!
Sign up here www.bajawhale.com/contact for our occasional e-newsletter sent to your email in-box. We include tour updates, photos, and news from the boat. Sometimes chefs Charles and Steve even let us publish a recipe of theirs!
Please visit now and check back often. Our 2011-12 tours are listed and ready for booking. We also have a blog which invites your comments!
You’ll receive an occasional notice from us with news from the field on whalewatching, birding and wildlife of Baja California and offshore San Diego…right into your email box. We use a secure system and don’t share email lists with anyone else.
Sign up here: http://www.bajawhale.com/contact/
The latest issue of American Cetacean Society’s Whalewatcher was edited by Thomas Jefferson, who will be a Searcher naturalist on the Jan 23-Feb 3, 2011 tour.
This issue is titled “Porpoises in Peril: The Vaquita and its Relatives” and features the porpoise that inhabits the northern Sea of Cortez in Baja California. Because the vaquita is limited to a small range and population size (125-150 animals), and due to the serious decline in numbers, it is considered to be one of the most endangered cetaceans in the world. Most probably this is due to the entanglements in gillnets used by fishemen. Conservationists are hopeful that removing these nets from their habitat can help the species recover.
This issue contains articles and photos from researchers and an illustrations of the porpoise family. We will have a copy in the onboard Searcher library and issues may be available for sale soon on the ACS web site.
More blue whale sightings from the fishing grounds: Capt Aaron reported seeing about 20 blue whales in an area about 200 miles south of San Diego and about 8 miles offshore. He says they appeared, many fluking, surfacing and some approaching the boat closely, just as daylight broke this morning.
He and his passengers enjoyed the sight!
Hello whalewatchers,
We have been fortunate to observe blue whales on our fishing trips this summer in various places. While travelling offshore of San Diego all the way down to Cedros Island we have seen a few along the coast 200 miles from San Diego. It is great to see so many blue whales. We make it a point to point these magnificent animals to our anglers and tell them how special it is. They are amazed at the sight!
On recent fishing trip off the Baja peninsula and 200 miles south east of San Diego, we observed 50-60 Cooks petrels, 25 blackfooted albatross, and 40-50 pink footed shearwaters. We also saw some of the deep-diving Baird’s beaked whales while they surfaced together. Hope you enjoy the short video of them.
Capt Art
Hello all,
We have been fortunate to observe blue whales on our fishing trips this summer in various places including offshore San Diego all the way down to Cedros Island. Just today we have seen a few along the Baja coast about 200 miles from San Diego. It is great to see so many blue whales, and see the summer population. We make it a point to point these magnificant animals to our fishing clients and tell them how special it is to see them. They are always amazed at the sight of them.
On our current fishing trip off the Baja peninsula and 200 miles southeast of San Diego, we also observed 50-60 Cooks petrels, 25 blackfooted albatross, and 40-50 pink footed shearwaters. We also saw some Baird’s beaked whales and a few blue whales.
Capt Art
Early September is a great time of year for Cook’s Petrels well offshore, and it is near-peak for Red-billed Tropicbirds. The latter is almost “guaranteed” (as much as any uncommon pelagic species can be). Laysan Albatrosses (likely from the breeding population on Guadalupe Island to the south) are seen regularly in these waters. This is also an excellent time of year and an excellent area for Least, Leach’s, Black and Ashy Storm-Petrels, Craveri’s Murrelet, and the hypoleucus subspecies of Xantus’s Murrelet. South Polar Skuas are migrating south already with other returning northern migrants as Sabine’s Gull, Arctic Tern, and Long-tailed Jaeger. And anytime we venture far offshore, who knows what rarity lurks just behind the next swell – e.g. September is the peak month for Hawaiian Petrel, well seen and photographed from Searcher on the September trip a few years ago.
We still have spots open. Join us!
