BajaNomad

Beautiful blue whales off Loreto- enjoy!

flyfishinPam - 2-20-2011 at 10:15 PM

capn.sharky - 2-20-2011 at 10:33 PM

Thank you, Pam. These are magnificent mamals and you are so right, we are lucky to be in Loreto---to share all the wonders of the Sea of Cortez. Thanks to all of you that do what you can to protect these precious waters...as well as the beautiful mountains and desert that faces it. Mexico has come a long way in its conservation practices. A day in the Sea of Cortez is as close as one can come to spending the day with El Senor.

coronamike - 2-20-2011 at 10:49 PM

What a fantastic video!!! Nice glassy day. Great music. Big blues!! Thanks so much!

Russ - 2-21-2011 at 06:07 AM

Good work!

bill erhardt - 2-21-2011 at 06:50 AM

Great video, Pam.
E and D are getting big.
Playing with the whales is as much fun as pulling on yellowtail these days......

Blues

tehag - 2-21-2011 at 06:51 AM

Wow! Perfect day. Lots of exciting stuff. Very professional, level, steady video work. Fine edit. Bravo!! Thank you, Pam.

monoloco - 2-21-2011 at 07:17 AM

Beautiful, thanks!

Cypress - 2-21-2011 at 07:20 AM

flyfishinPam, Thanks.:yes:

oladulce - 2-21-2011 at 08:15 AM

FlyfishinPam that was really fun to watch. I like the perspective of the kids on the bow. What perfect conditions you had. Why do those slow, graceful tail flips give you goose bumps and make you say "ooohhhh!"?

wilderone - 2-21-2011 at 08:38 AM

WOW! Fantastic - loved the ending with the dolphin.

ncampion - 2-21-2011 at 08:51 AM

Great video, Pam. Makes me remember why I'm here. When and where did you shoot it???

LaloinBaja - 2-21-2011 at 09:19 AM

Pam...What is the music?????Lovin' it...Want it!!!!!!Thanks...Lalo (Is is My buddy Luke Pavarotti??)

vandenberg - 2-21-2011 at 09:23 AM

Great work Pam !!!

Thanks !!

rhintransit - 2-21-2011 at 09:47 AM

thanks Pam! great work. we are so fortunate to live here and to be able to see these giants up close every year.

Dog Heartworm in Baja???

LaloinBaja - 2-21-2011 at 09:54 AM

Can anyone tell me if there is a problem with heartworms in dogs in Rosarito Beach or Mulege area????

Wow.

djh - 2-21-2011 at 10:11 AM

Simply MAGIC !

Thanks for sharing it with all of us.

djh

PS. I know some of the music is composed by Ennio Morricone . . . My favorite CD of all time is Cellist YoYo Ma playing Ennio Morricone . . .

flyfishinPam - 2-21-2011 at 10:14 AM

Thanks and I'm an amateur with the camera. I had to get used to their behaviour and it was my first time out in a boat without a fishing rod. YT fishing is slow and these guys are the reason. I have a blue whale specialist here with us through March and in learning from him, the kind of upwelling murky water conditions that the fish don't feed in is prime for these large mammals. Its a trade-off I can live with though.

We're learning from this guy how to conduct the boats properly around the whales, then next year we'll start doing these tours too. This is giving another skill to our fishermen to carry us through a time of year when we'd be setting nets instead...and speaking of nets.

On Feb. 14th this specialist and our captain freed a Humpback who was completely tangled in a fishing net off Punta Baja. The Humpback was freed by these two guys and one four inch pocket-knife, no tanks or even snorkels. Its on video and I am waiting for that but I do have some photos I'll post when I get the chance. I worked on the video most of yesterday mainly for my family in the USA to see including my 98 year old grandma.

The music is Luciano, Winston and a favorite song from Il Postino

shari - 2-21-2011 at 10:26 AM

Great news Pam...having the fishermen diversify is wonderful...more skills the better and it is critical that they learn from a whale person how to successfully view whales...each species requires a different technique but learning the right way to observe whales is extremely important. One thing I found interesting was that many of the whales you saw were in resting mode...whales catnap on the surface and one problem with commercial whale watching is that whales dont get the rest they need as they are often disturbed by boats and have to wake up and submerge..on calm, glassy days whales seem to rest more like that. Excellent footage.

Pam, it would be great if you could begin documenting things like how many whales in an area, the date, time, tide state, behavior, direction when travelling, species and remarks that may be of use to researchers later and matching your notes with photo ID's of the individuals and is also interesting for you and your family...get the kids involved with taking notes at the time of sightings and they can earn to identify individuals by their markings...sirenita began doing that when she was a toddler....thank you Pam for being you...

I am just back from an outstanding 2 days at Ojo de Liebre with Eli and Standingwave and others....I have vowed never to wash my lips again after planting some big juicy kisses on a real sexy whale! trip report coming.

[Edited on 2-21-2011 by shari]

SDRonni - 2-21-2011 at 11:13 AM

That was just fantastic, Pam! I know how much work it is to put these videos together. Thank you so much!

Great photo spread, Pam...just gorgeous!

Pompano - 2-21-2011 at 11:33 AM

We have whales near Mulege now, too. Manana will be a boat trip to take photos of them...with some fishing, maybe!

Sallysouth - 2-21-2011 at 02:48 PM

What a beautiful video Pam!That was just outside of Juncalito if I am not mistaken. God I miss Loreto.You have beautiful children too!!Thanks for sharing with us!!!

monoloco - 2-21-2011 at 04:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by shari
Great news Pam...having the fishermen diversify is wonderful...more skills the better and it is critical that they learn from a whale person how to successfully view whales...each species requires a different technique but learning the right way to observe whales is extremely important. One thing I found interesting was that many of the whales you saw were in resting mode...whales catnap on the surface and one problem with commercial whale watching is that whales dont get the rest they need as they are often disturbed by boats and have to wake up and submerge..on calm, glassy days whales seem to rest more like that. Excellent footage.

Pam, it would be great if you could begin documenting things like how many whales in an area, the date, time, tide state, behavior, direction when travelling, species and remarks that may be of use to researchers later and matching your notes with photo ID's of the individuals and is also interesting for you and your family...get the kids involved with taking notes at the time of sightings and they can earn to identify individuals by their markings...sirenita began doing that when she was a toddler....thank you Pam for being you...

I am just back from an outstanding 2 days at Ojo de Liebre with Eli and Standingwave and others....I have vowed never to wash my lips again after planting some big juicy kisses on a real sexy whale! trip report coming.

[Edited on 2-21-2011 by shari]
Shari and Pam, I was out on a boat off Cabo San Lucas yesterday and it was shameful the way the tour boats were crowding the whales. We encountered a pod of gray whales and a pod of humpbacks, in both cases they were completely surrounded then pursued by 10-12 boats very closely. It would be a really worthwhile project to disseminate some of that education down there.

non-aggressive boatmanship

flyfishinPam - 2-21-2011 at 06:48 PM

We're working on just that in going through this training. I was proud at how 4 of the 5 boats out there that day behaved. The double motor boat was a big too gung-ho in my opinion, but the rest of us respected the animals and each other. We're all brothers here its a small town and like family we gave each other their space. I've seen whale chases and it nauseates me as well. I have some of this on film especially at Lopez Mateos and it will serve as an example of how not to operate a boat around whales.

I understand there are some folks who would rather not see this become commercialized but we have to work, so we may as well do it responsibly and with as little an impact as we can.

Those resting blue whales, especially the one with the cut fin followed our boat through the day. It wasn't something I noticed until I sorted through 4GB of video clips and could point out individuals. Of course after I took the camera off my eye I was seeing double for half an hour.

This was off Nopolo and Juncalito.

Bob H - 2-21-2011 at 07:29 PM

Pam, I finally got around to checking out your video. I can only echo, times 10, what everyone else has said. Absolutely top notch videography and music!! It was also very relaxing to watch, and most enjoyable.

I have one question. Who was playing the piano in the 2nd music clip? I loved it. I play piano myself, and I really enjoyed it.

Bob H

PabloS - 2-21-2011 at 08:05 PM

Great video Pam! I'm sure you spent a lot of time and effort putting it together. :bounce:

msawin - 2-21-2011 at 08:51 PM

That was great Pam. Thanks for sharing. Good to see everyone out for the boat ride. Enzel is getting to be a big boy. See ya in a couple weeks...... marty

shari - 2-21-2011 at 09:45 PM

Quote:
Quote:
Shari and Pam, I was out on a boat off Cabo San Lucas yesterday and it was shameful the way the tour boats were crowding the whales. We encountered a pod of gray whales and a pod of humpbacks, in both cases they were completely surrounded then pursued by 10-12 boats very closely. It would be a really worthwhile project to disseminate some of that education down there.


I agree that education is the key to successful, low impact whale observation. If people like Pam are the pioneers in this activity, i am sure they will set a good example of how it should be done. It may be worthwhile to think about setting local "codes of conduct" type "recomdations" in your area...lobby fisheries to set up spome viewing regs from the git-go. I would hate to see those whales harrassed to the point where they simply avoid an area...but those in the video didnt appear to me bothered much although they did get woken up a couple times.

AmoPescar - 2-22-2011 at 03:14 AM

Pam,

Are you certain they are Blues? In relation to the boats, their size doesn't look large enough to be blues (75 to 100') and their color appears to be too dark.

I'm certainly not an expert...just wondering.


Miguelamo :?:

flyfishinPam - 2-22-2011 at 01:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AmoPescar
Pam,

Are you certain they are Blues? In relation to the boats, their size doesn't look large enough to be blues (75 to 100') and their color appears to be too dark.

I'm certainly not an expert...just wondering.


Miguelamo :?:


yes they are blues. look at their mottled pigmentation, and also realize that they don't put much of their bodies out of the water simply because they are too large. the backs of these resting whales in these video clips only show roughly 20% of their body length. sometimes the angle of the sun, angle of the shot or glare can deceive ya.

Marc - 2-22-2011 at 07:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by LaloinBaja
Pam...What is the music?????Lovin' it...Want it!!!!!!Thanks...Lalo (Is is My buddy Luke Pavarotti??)


Yes, that is Pavarotti with Vanessa Williams "Non Ti Scordar Di Me"

Bob H - 2-24-2011 at 09:46 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Marc
Quote:
Originally posted by LaloinBaja
Pam...What is the music?????Lovin' it...Want it!!!!!!Thanks...Lalo (Is is My buddy Luke Pavarotti??)


Yes, that is Pavarotti with Vanessa Williams "Non Ti Scordar Di Me"


Yes, but what is the second song... piano???

lizard lips - 2-24-2011 at 10:10 AM

I went fishing with Fred Hoctor several times in his little aluminum 12" and once, on foggy day as we were heading south in front of La Bufadora, I heard several noises that I couldn't figure out. Fred said it was the tug boat bringing cement from Santo Tomas to Ensenada. As we got closer, and the fog lifted there were two Blue's and they were beautiful. We got closer and watched them for over an hour. They looked a lot bigger than the whales in the video. I will never forget the look on Fred's face as he watched them. It was like a little boy in a candy shop. I miss Fred and will never forget that particular fishing trip!