Boca de Soledad, Magdalena Bay
California gray whale calves abounded in the protected waters of Magdalena Bay today. Curious, obedient, exuberant, beautiful – the baby whales are growing, strengthening, learning and gaining new experiences daily.
Among their early life experiences may be close encounters with boats, where both human and whale are afforded excellent views of each other. Today we were fortunate to ride amongst nursery groups of mother-calf pairs and to have some of the young whales approach our vessels.
Like some Muppet with gray rubbery skin, octopus eyes, a proboscis of an upper lip, and rows of coarse white hairs, one baby California gray whale arose from the sea to stare into our Zodiac of faces, before being lifted up and off the broad barnacled back of its mother. Other calves tested out strengthening muscles, flapping softly-pigmented flukes against their moms, or opened their mouths showing off racks of baby baleen. A few new whales checked the texture of their skin against that of our rubber Zodiacs.
In short time, the young whales will need to venture out of the protected shallow saline waters of Magdalena Bay into the Pacific Ocean for the voyage of a lifetime, to travel some 5000 miles north along the west coast of North America to productive Arctic feeding areas. Along the way from the appendage of Baja California through that of the Aleutian Islands, they will gain a whole new understanding of their world. We might say that we have gained a whole new understanding of our world today, having encountered these beautiful newborn beings of our planet’s ocean.
California gray whale calves abounded in the protected waters of Magdalena Bay today. Curious, obedient, exuberant, beautiful – the baby whales are growing, strengthening, learning and gaining new experiences daily.
Among their early life experiences may be close encounters with boats, where both human and whale are afforded excellent views of each other. Today we were fortunate to ride amongst nursery groups of mother-calf pairs and to have some of the young whales approach our vessels.
Like some Muppet with gray rubbery skin, octopus eyes, a proboscis of an upper lip, and rows of coarse white hairs, one baby California gray whale arose from the sea to stare into our Zodiac of faces, before being lifted up and off the broad barnacled back of its mother. Other calves tested out strengthening muscles, flapping softly-pigmented flukes against their moms, or opened their mouths showing off racks of baby baleen. A few new whales checked the texture of their skin against that of our rubber Zodiacs.
In short time, the young whales will need to venture out of the protected shallow saline waters of Magdalena Bay into the Pacific Ocean for the voyage of a lifetime, to travel some 5000 miles north along the west coast of North America to productive Arctic feeding areas. Along the way from the appendage of Baja California through that of the Aleutian Islands, they will gain a whole new understanding of their world. We might say that we have gained a whole new understanding of our world today, having encountered these beautiful newborn beings of our planet’s ocean.
