Trip Reports

Howdy whalewatchers:, It started at daylight and it’s finishing with a red sunset–a great day! First pacific white-sided dolpins welcomed us to San Benito Island just before arriving and during the day, the island walkers encountered large amounts of Guadalupe fur seals (photo by Chris Shields), elephant seals and some more California sea lions. The ospreys were on the move today also–they seemed to be enjoying the lovely sun and calm weather too. Shortly after leaving the island we were in a zone with nine blue whales though they were a bit on the difficult side to observe since they were holding their breath for close to 20 minutes at a time. But with nine of them around, there always seemed to be one whale on the surface to see with your binoculars. After moving on, there were rafts of black-vented shearwaters. It had to come to a end sometime and that was with the red sky sunset. So we’re off and headed south to San Ignacio Lagoon.
Good whalewatching and observing nature as it comes to you.
Capt Aaron and the Searcher crew

Howdy whalewatchers: Today was a wonderful first day and we hope for more to come.  We had a good look at a masked booby (photo by Lee Morgan) at the south end of Todos Santos island along with elephant seals, harbor seals, and California sea lions.  Shortly after leaving the island we were lucky to find a very large group of short-beaked common dolphins, we’re guessing there were around 700-800 animals. Then the fin whales! Five fin whales in a group and we were lucky to stay with three of them for some time and had really good looks. As we were headed to the fin whales there were four humpback whales, all withing a square mile of each other. One of the humpbacks breached wonderfully in front of us, surprising us nicely with his/her aerobatics. As the day went on we saw more fin whales, humpbacks and northbound gray whales. Tomorrow we will be at Islas San Benito.
Happy whalewatching and observing nature as it comes to you,
Capt aaron and the Searcher crew

Hello whalewatchers:
Today we started at Isla San Jose in the mangroves at the south end. We had great birdwatching due to low tide. Everyone enjoyed the skiff ride.  We arrived at Los Islotes and took everyone on a skiff ride around the islet. Afterward we had a snorkel session and for some, it was the highlight of their trip. The sea lions performed admirably.
We were able to depart at lunch time and have plenty of time to check out the Cerralvo channel. We found just a single humpback whale and a few manta rays. There was some bird life, lots of black storm petrels and three red-billed tropicbirds. The weather is fantastic–it has been an incredible run of calm weather. We are very fortunate.
Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: Happy Saint Patricks Day! We started the day at Isla Santa Catalina with an early hike and then a snorkel session and a Crazy Coastal Cruise for everyone. There was a good group of bottlenose dolphin that everyone enjoyed during the cruise. It is a totally different  perspective from the skiff instead of the Searcher. We had lunch and then went west towards Isla Monserate where we have had great success finding whales. It didn’t take long once we got across the channel to spot several spouts in the distance and we found another area of blue whales. We saw at least eight different whales and we spent a couple of hours veiwing them. Two were” flukers” so we had great photo opportunities. Today’s photo is a blue whale fluke.
Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: Well today was quite a day, beginning with dolphins and bioluminesence at 430 am. We enjoyed great weather and a gorgeous sunrise at Punta Colorado. Everyone went ashore early to beat the heat and then came back to the boat for a snorkel session. It was a great morning.
We headed north and didn’t get very far.We  came upon an area of blue whales –yes, an “area” –with 10-12 whales, two cow calf pairs and two flukers all in a 2- square mile area. We spent two-hours with them. Along with the blue whales were several manta rays on the surface, there were packs of them at times with 7 or 8 rays together, and of course they were jumping. We decided to leave  and head north to see what the rest of the day would bring us. Lots and lots of diving pelicans, jaegers, gulls, shearwaters and storm petrels. The crew spotted two dwarf sperm whales and also in the distance some pilot whales. We had some great looks at these whales. We made it up to Isla Santa Catalina for the night. Also we had one more look at Panstarrs comet. Very cool!
Today’s photo is of a male pilot whale.
Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: What a great day today! Lots of humpbacks around the Gorda Banks area. We saw all the great behaviors for humpbacks. The highlight was a trio of whales, a cow with a calf and an escort, with the calf breaching along with the escort, and the cow and escort flipper flapping together. The weather was tremendous with sunny skies and calm seas. We went ashore and had a good snorkel session at Bahia Los Frailes. We ended the day with smooth-tailed mobulas everywhere and a typical Baja sunset. Today’s picture is a tail-lobbing humpback whale.
Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: We are outside Bahia Magdalena today and have had a great morning already. Our viewing conditions are good with calm seas, light winds, and clear skies. Great bird sightings with masked and brown boobies, Sabines gulls, black storm petrel, red phalropes, black-footed albatross and frigatebirds. We had a few long beaked common dolphins and a great look at a Bryde’s whale. The highlight has been a trio of blue whales up close in clean water and great lighting. We spent an hour with them and decided to head south since they were heading north. More later, Team Searcher