BajaNomad

Whales at Lopez Mateos?

bajalorena - 3-8-2010 at 11:25 AM

Has anyone been recently whale watching at Lopez Mateos? We would like to take our grandsons next week, but would like a real time update on the population of whales. Thanks...........

capt. mike - 3-8-2010 at 12:58 PM

plenty there according to flyin sams who have the clinic there.
they will be back this weekend.

bajalorena - 3-8-2010 at 08:08 PM

thanks, Mike

dtutko1 - 3-9-2010 at 06:31 AM

we have friends who drove up to Lopez Mateos last week from Pescadero and went on a whale watching panga and saw no whales, plenty of dolphins and other sea life, but not 1 whale. Maybe Shari has an explanation.

bill erhardt - 3-9-2010 at 09:29 AM

It was a very bad year for whales at Lopez Mateos. Through mid-January I fished out of Lopez whenever the wind was down, running north from the ramp to Boca de Soledad and out to the Pacific. I did not see a single whale in the estero over dozens of trips. A couple of times there were whales in the boca. This morning I spoke to Ruben Duran who is the primo fishing guide out of Lopez Mateos. He fished yesterday in the estero and saw no whales. He said that recently there have been one or two in the boca early in the morning, but with the wind blowing as it has been it is too rough for a panga in the boca. Ruben thinks that the whale season in Lopez, such as it has been, is over.

DianaT - 3-9-2010 at 09:58 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bill erhardt
It was a very bad year for whales at Lopez Mateos. Through mid-January I fished out of Lopez whenever the wind was down, running north from the ramp to Boca de Soledad and out to the Pacific. I did not see a single whale in the estero over dozens of trips. A couple of times there were whales in the boca. This morning I spoke to Ruben Duran who is the primo fishing guide out of Lopez Mateos. He fished yesterday in the estero and saw no whales. He said that recently there have been one or two in the boca early in the morning, but with the wind blowing as it has been it is too rough for a panga in the boca. Ruben thinks that the whale season in Lopez, such as it has been, is over.


That is really a shame especially after they were hit so hard with the hurricane. :no:

shari - 3-9-2010 at 10:05 AM

this is consistant with what I had heard as well...I was surprised when Mike said the Sams saw lots of whales there.

This year, there has been a large decline of whales present in all the lagoons. There were only 18 calves reported in San Ignacio last week and it was the peak of the season there. I cant remember the exact # of calves in Ojo de LIebre but it was only around 150 at the end of february which is by far much less than the usual amount of babies.

It would be neat if the Reserve posted the census reports publically...they post them at the Interpretive Centre in the inner lagoon at Ojo de Liebre...the ejido part.

researchers say it is a natural cycle...the population has it's ups and downs...but I bet there is some reason behind it....perhaps food scarcity so they self regulate their numbers??? This concurs with the theory that whales limit their population numbers when it has reached it's original estimated population size which would be ideal for food ratios. It is interesting to see the charts over the years for dips and spikes in population numbers and they always are similar in each lagoon.

remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill...there was a huge decline in reproduction a couple years after that and I always wondered if it had something to do with the icky stuff affecting their food ....as they are bottom feeders.

I notice there are many more whales than usual outside our place which is logical..less whales in the lagoons=more whales on the outside.

another one of my many dreams is that someone might have the time to come and set up a little counting station here...it would only take say 3 people, or 2 dedicated souls who would rotate watches and count the whales passing in a day. It is interesting to note the space between them...every few minutes, one or a few pass by...some outside the island and many between the island and the point at our place.
They started trekking northbound earlier this year as well.

Perhaps we could organize some nomads to post the counts out of the 3 lagoons...I could get the Ojo de Liebre data, maybe someone with connections in San Ignacio and Lopez Mateos could get them for those areas and we can moniter the numbers.

[Edited on 3-9-2010 by shari]

DianaT - 3-9-2010 at 10:31 AM

I know before we left BA we were surprised to see so many still headed south--there were several everyday and they did not seem to be in a hurry. At least they looked like they were headed south. Last year we saw some heading north the first week of March - I remember the dates because of the one that did a complete breach in honor of John's birthday---or at least he thought he was saying happy birthday. :biggrin:

There are a number of articles on the internet about the late Grey Whale migration this year that talk about it being a part of the Climate Change and the warming of the ocean----interesting reading, except for those who think there is no change happening.

It sounds like the changes happening in their northern home are causing them problems---the adaptation will be interesting.

flyfishinPam - 3-9-2010 at 05:58 PM

I Live in Loreto and have been doing whale watching tours for a cruise lines that offers these trips once a week for the past 10 weeks. i can count on one hand how many whales i saw in a combined two hours times ten of these trips trips (ten weekly trips). Jimena changed the boca de solidad and the entrance has a big sand bar blocking it. I would imagine the tides have been affected. I know that the east side off the boca is much shallower than it was last year even on a high tide a whale couldnt go in there and I have filmed whales there in past years. i am so sorry for the people of Lopez Mateos. it seems that whan there are whales they are too far out into the boca to take passengers safely to see them. bummer