Searching for the gray whales of Magdalena Bay
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/January/09/sty...
By AL ZAGOFSKY
January 9, 2005
Since whaling was banned in 1946, the California gray whale population has rebounded from near extinction to a population that has been estimated to
be as high as 27,000. Gray whales are a symbol of hope for the world?s endangered species.
Locally, we see the grays in Monterey Bay passing on their annual 10,000 mile migration from their Bering Sea feeding grounds to Baja California?s
protective lagoons where they mate and birth their calves.
I joined Sea Kayak Adventures Inc. for a weeklong kayaking expedition in the longest and most remote of these lagoons, Magdalena Bay in Baja, Mexico.
Our group of 11 adventurers and three guides met in Loreto, midway down the east coast of the Baja Peninsula and Spanish California?s original
capital.
Early the next morning, two shuttle vans arrived ? one for people and their belongings, the other loaded with supplies and towing a kayak trailer.
Three hours later, as we descended the 3,000-foot cactus-covered Giganta Mountain range, we had our first glimpse of the Pacific coast of Baja and
Magdalena Bay.
After unloading the kayaks, supplies, paddling equipment and personal bags, we ate our first lunch of cheese and local vegetables as we watched
pelicans dive for fish.
Following a sea-kayaking orientation, we launched our tandem kayaks and set off on a journey that would put us out of touch with the commercial world
for five days.
As we paddled the mangrove-lined channel, flocks of snowy egrets, blue herons and cormorants lined the trees, waded in the shallow water and flew low
over the water.
At low tide, the roots of the mangroves and the sand bars were exposed, forcing us to get out of our boats and pull the kayaks across the bar into the
deeper water.
We paddled past a pod of dolphins and saw a sea lion and pup resting on shore before we made camp on an unnamed, dune-covered island.
We dined on fish Veracruz as we watched a red-colored full moonrise follow a Kodak moment sunset.
Though we woke to an overcast morning, by the time we set out to paddle the mangroves it was sunny and comfortable. One island on our route was a
rookery for hundreds of sea birds, mostly cormorants.
Returning to our camp, we lunched and then walked across the narrow island to see a herd of sea lions on a beach of surreal emptiness.
The next morning, the seas were choppy as we crossed the channel. Waves crashed over the hulls and occasionally, over the heads of the paddlers but no
one capsized. At one point, water from the waves sprayed into our faces raising adrenaline levels and providing the grandest thrill of the trip.
After paddling nearly 30 miles that included side trips and circuitous routes around sand bars, we arrived at the southern tip of Isla Santa Domingo,
the bay entrance frequented by gray whales.
The Mexican government does not permit kayaks in this part of Magdalena Bay, so the outfitter hired specially licensed motorboats captained by people
who are sensitive to the whale?s moods and who turn the boats back if the whales shows signs of discomfort.
Within minutes, our captain called our attention to a rising form just left of the boat. It was an enormous figure, perhaps 20-foot long and we feared
that it would flip our boat. This, it turned out, was the calf. Nearby, the mother watched. She was more than twice as big.
When the calf came alongside the boat, everyone went to that side wanting to touch the calf ? nearly swamping the boat from the shifting weight.
Everyone petted the calf while its mother watched from on the other side of the boat. Our captain said that only one in fifty calves allows itself to
be touched.
As its natural wonders draw more people to visit and move to Baja, a building boom is anticipated. Will the gray whale?s success become the beginning
of its next crisis?
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Baja California facts
About 4.5 million years ago, the Baja Peninsula separated from the mainland of Mexico by the expansion of the San Andreas Fault.
Jesuits found Mission Nuestra Senora de Loreto Concho at Loreto in 1679. It served as capital of all of Spanish California for 133 years.
The Baja oath of allegiance to Mexico for independence from Spain was taken in 1822.
Baja becomes Mexican state in 1952.
Baja is the second largest North-South peninsula in the world. It is twice the length of Florida. The only peninsula in the world longer than Baja is
the Malay.
Magdalena Bay is 500 miles south of San Diego. It is the largest and most extensive salt-water bay on the peninsula.
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Facts about gray whales
The gray and humpback whale have the longest migration of any mammal, typically exceeding a 10,000 annual round trip.
Gray whale mating typically involves two males and one female.
Gray whales give birth in Mexican lagoons during the winter months. Calves are born live, 12 to 15 feet long and weigh a ton.
Adults are 35 to 50 feet long and weigh 20 to 40 tons.
Gray whale lifespan is typically 30 to 40 years, but some are known to have lived to 60.
Gray whales typically feed off the sea bottom, scooping up sediment and filtering it through a sieve-like baleen structure on the roof of their mouth.
Their only natural enemies are the killer whale, large sharks and man.
Barnacles attach to the calf just after birth, creating the characteristic mottled appearance.
Gray whales once roamed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Nineteenth-century whaling destroyed the Atlantic and Korean gray whale populations, and
twice nearly exterminated the California grays. Since the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was signed in 1946, the gray whale
population has returned to near its pre-hunting level.
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