Anonymous - 2-20-2005 at 09:33 AM
http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/travel/10944547.htm
BY ROSEMARY MCCLURE
Feb. 20, 2005
...Gray whales may be elusive as they make their round-trip journey along the California coast, but they become downright friendly when they reach the
lagoons of central Baja.
"If you go whale watching off our coast (Southern California), you may see a dorsal fin, a tail and a snout," said Mark Ryan, curator of marine
mammals at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif. "Gray whales aren't known for being athletic; they're pretty sedate."
They're also in the middle of a 12,000-mile round-trip journey to their winter breeding grounds in Baja.
But once they reach the Baja lagoons, they become comfortable around visitors, frequently surfacing near the small whale-watching craft used by
Mexican boatmen.
"Being able to touch and pet a whale is an experience beyond description," said Long Beach resident Chuck Cover, who stroked a young gray whale during
a visit to Scammon's Lagoon, about 450 miles south of San Diego. "They look straight at you when they surface. You feel like you're communicating with
them."
Experts say about 15,000 gray whales winter in Baja. They leave their summer feeding grounds in the northern Pacific waters of the Bering and Chukchi
seas in the fall and swim south, traveling 3 to 6 mph. Two or three months later, they arrive at the mating and calving lagoons in the protected
waters of San Ignacio Bay, Magdalena Bay and Scammon's Lagoon (Laguna Ojo de Liebre).
Although the Baja whale-watching industry doesn't compare to that of Hawaii, it has mushroomed in the past decade. Many of those involved are trying
to keep a grip on its development.
"The Mexican government and the local residents have really made an effort to focus on conservation," said Shelley Glenn Lee of Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in San Diego. "There are strict rules about how many boats are allowed on the water at one time, and all the boats have to have permits."
Lee, like many who have seen Baja whales, rhapsodizes about close encounters with the cetaceans. "We were surrounded by about 500 whales and had a
mother and baby with us for about an hour and a half," she said of one trip. "The mom poked her head out of the water, looked at us and then kind of
turned on her side next to our boat. It was like she wanted us to pet her."
Whale watchers arrive in Baja on cruise ships and by buses, vans and planes, some flying into Loreto or Cabo San Lucas and driving north. Unlike on
Maui, accommodations there are limited, and some tours include stays in tent cabins along the coast.
Cover drove south from the U.S. border with a group of friends, spending one night in Ensenada and two nights in a hotel in Guerrero Negro, about 30
minutes from the lagoon. In the morning, his group drove to the lagoon launch site and found a boat with room for passengers.
Many people say that the largest number of whales can be seen in Scammon's Lagoon but that the whales in San Ignacio Bay, 125 miles farther south, are
the friendliest.
"The best site is San Ignacio," said Baja educator Estela Parrilla de Alvarez, formerly director of the Ensenada Science Museum. "It isn't as
touristy, the whales come in closer and the environment is much more pristine." Parrilla, who organizes whale-watching trips to the area, said she
knew after her first visit to San Ignacio that she would keep coming back. "The whales are wonderful. It's a very special experience."...