Trip Reports

Lunch is served!

Well done, chefs!

But the highlight was a blue whale for dessert! The boys on the roof saw the blows far in the distance. It was down for 20 minutes before it surfaced again., but we were able to follow it closely because of the clear blue water. We could keep track of the whale visually underwater and follow it for several minutes until it surfaced again. Some fine photography took place by our guests.

Blue whale off the bow!

Team Searcher

Curious gray whale in Laguna San Ignacio!

Afternoon update:

We finished the day today with a either a beach walk or a whalewatch. Everyone had a great experience here in Laguna San Ignacio with close encounters with gray whales, bird watching in the mangroves and a beach walk on Punta Brounough.

Happy whalewatchers return to Searcher. New pangas are roomy!

We are headed south for a day at sea to look for whales, dolphins, birds and sea turtles.

More tomorrow,
Team Searcher

David Phelps, Searcher passenger. and Steven Swartz, gray whale expert (right) pose on Searcher in the sunshine.

Every year we provide support to Steven Swartz and his research group here in the lagoon. Steven published a book called “Lagoon Time“ and this year we are gifting our passengers with a signed copy. One of the guests on this trip, David Phelps of England, received a copy from his family in the USA.  As a result of reading the book from cover-to-cover multiple times David decided to make the trip abroad and visit Laguna San Ignacio.

Steven and his team came by the boat today to pick up a few things, and David and a other guests got to meet Steven. This year is his 40th anniversary of working in the lagoon! He has new information about the photo ID program and has discovered are several matches from 1977 of the same whales in this lagoon today. Pretty incredible to know that whales we have been seeing and interacting with for the last 40 years still return every year to this wonderful place. We assume they are in their 50’s, like us.

Here is a link to Steven’s article about the age of living gray whales which isn’t even in press yet: https://www.sanignaciograywhales.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Age-of-GW-FINAL-for-AMJ.pdf

A brand new motor gives the biologists a dependable panga for their work!

One item that we were able to help finance for Steven and his group was a new motor for the research panga! May it live long and assist these biologists who study and protect the gray whales.

Afternoon update:

Our activities are finished for today. Everyone enjoyed themselves with good whalewatching and plenty of whales to view. We had some fog midday that made viewing harder for awhile. But since, the weather has been great with light winds.
Check out our new shade awning for the back deck.

It’s a little larger this year and much sturdier.

We are planning to have “lights out” tonight so we can view the lunar eclipse, the “snow” full moon, and maybe the comet. The silence will be nice with the generator off and maybe hear the whales breathing.
Our plan is to go to the mangroves early in the morning to start the day.

Team Searcher

Free time for painting the scenery around you!

Team Searcher

Dave Pereksta’s photo of the murrelet from a previous trip.

Hello birders: We had a great day on the calm Pacific Ocean today! We started the day off by checking out lots of shearwaters and storm petrels in our slick. The highlight this morning was an epic look at a Guadalupe murrelet. Shortly after we had a Red-billed tropicbird circle the boat for around 15 minutes while we had a brown booby fly by as well.

The afternoon’s sightings consisted of fin whales, blue whales and some more common dolphin. Even a loggerhead turtle graced us for awhile. We saw a few Craveri’s murrelets, and the last pair we saw let us get close for us all to enjoy. We’re going to bird for a couple hours before calling a great trip!

Capt Aaron and the Searcher crew

Many thanks to Tom Blackman for the brown booby photo use!

Black-vented shearwater, thanks to Tom Blackman

We are going up by San Miguel Island this afternoon, hoping to see some more wildlife.
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Surfacing blue whale and open blowhole

p.s. Capt Aaron called the office shortly after sending this report. He was in an area of more than a dozen blue whales and they were lunge feeding all around the boat! Needless to say, he was pretty excited and wanted us to add it to the mid-day report! Many thanks to Rob Nawojchik for the use of these blue whale photos!