The Sea Lion had one of those rare days of cruising far out into the Pacific Ocean. Upon waking up this morning, we anchored outside of Magdalena Bay in Bah¡a Santa Mar¡a in the Pacific Ocean. The water was like glass, a rare experience in the Pacific. As the fog lifted, and morning activities were finishing, our expedition leader decided to celebrate our good fortune and take us out into the Pacific in search of more exotic marine life.

We set sail for Thetis Bank, nineteen miles off the coast of the Baja peninsula. It was a two hour ride northwest off the the coastline. As we approached the Banks we were in six fathoms of water, the bank rising up from the sea floor below us. The sea around this mount is approximately sixty to eighty fathoms deep. We circled the Thetis Bank, named after Neptune's bride, and then returned to Magdalena Bay following the 100 fathom line, a place rich in pelagic sea life.

We saw red-throated phalaropes, huge bait balls of small fish, and schools of pelagic bottlenose dolphins, all feeding in the rich waters created by the upwelling of currents bringing nutrients to the surface of the Pacific. We gathered small pelagic red crabs from the Pacific in a plankton tow, and brought them to bow for everyone to see!