Sea of Cortes and Santa Catalina Island
Our journey into the Sea of Cortes started this calm morning sailing in the area between Monserrat, Carmen and Santa Catalina Islands. These waters are reputedly rich in nutrients caused by the complex topography of the ocean's bottom and by upwelling, and we concentrated efforts there to find marine mammals. Just before breakfast we saw dolphins, but we turned our attention to several blows seen in the distance. They took us directly to a solitary individual of fin whale, the second largest of all the living whales. Two more series of blows were seen around, but we decided to stay longer with the fin whale and observe more of its movements. Our specialists in cetaceans provided us with a lot of information. After a time we left the whale and Jim Kelly, our expedition leader, gave us an interesting lecture on Geology, especially in relation to the formation of the Gulf of California. By the late morning, as we were approaching to Santa Catalina Island, our afternoon destination, we saw more blows. This time, the blows were taller than the previously seen, so we suspected that there was a different species. In fact, it was a blue whale that gracefully traveled probably in search of food.
In the afternoon, once on the beautiful but long-ago isolated granitic island of Santa Catalina, we hiked and snorkeled. A plethora of marine creatures were seen into the water, and Carlos Navarro, our undersea specialist, presented a very interesting footage of them during recap. Those who took a long hike were granted with the exceptional sight of one of the Santa Catalina Island's treasures: a young individual of the rattleless rattlesnake. This animal, of no more than 10 inches in length, was curled and perfectly camouflaged under a little granite rock, and did not show any fear. Therefore, it moved or shook the tail as having a big rattle. We gently managed to get it into a hat (photo). Besides the snake, we were delighted with the magnificent flora and several bird species, like shrikes, woodpeckers, gnatcatchers, white-wing doves, sparrows and wrens, among others.
Our journey into the Sea of Cortes started this calm morning sailing in the area between Monserrat, Carmen and Santa Catalina Islands. These waters are reputedly rich in nutrients caused by the complex topography of the ocean's bottom and by upwelling, and we concentrated efforts there to find marine mammals. Just before breakfast we saw dolphins, but we turned our attention to several blows seen in the distance. They took us directly to a solitary individual of fin whale, the second largest of all the living whales. Two more series of blows were seen around, but we decided to stay longer with the fin whale and observe more of its movements. Our specialists in cetaceans provided us with a lot of information. After a time we left the whale and Jim Kelly, our expedition leader, gave us an interesting lecture on Geology, especially in relation to the formation of the Gulf of California. By the late morning, as we were approaching to Santa Catalina Island, our afternoon destination, we saw more blows. This time, the blows were taller than the previously seen, so we suspected that there was a different species. In fact, it was a blue whale that gracefully traveled probably in search of food.
In the afternoon, once on the beautiful but long-ago isolated granitic island of Santa Catalina, we hiked and snorkeled. A plethora of marine creatures were seen into the water, and Carlos Navarro, our undersea specialist, presented a very interesting footage of them during recap. Those who took a long hike were granted with the exceptional sight of one of the Santa Catalina Island's treasures: a young individual of the rattleless rattlesnake. This animal, of no more than 10 inches in length, was curled and perfectly camouflaged under a little granite rock, and did not show any fear. Therefore, it moved or shook the tail as having a big rattle. We gently managed to get it into a hat (photo). Besides the snake, we were delighted with the magnificent flora and several bird species, like shrikes, woodpeckers, gnatcatchers, white-wing doves, sparrows and wrens, among others.
