Laguna San Ignacio
From the mid eighteenth century through the early twentieth century, this lagoon was the site of whaling operations that left gray whales on the edge of extinction. The whales were once known as “devil fish” because of their fierce actions to protect themselves and their young. In the 1920s after the revolution, Mexico passed the world’s first marine mammal protection laws. Since then, grays have increased in population to pre-whaling numbers, more than 20,000.
Today, some gray whales are called “friendly” due to their unique behavior of approaching small boats and interacting with people. With great anticipation this morning, we boarded Zodiacs for the journey into Laguna San Ignacio. We were well rewarded with scores of whales, and even recorded some spy hopping and other surface behaviors. Numerous “friendly” cow-calf pairs approached our boats. In some cases, females lifted or gently pushed their two-month old calves to be next to us. Zodiac after Zodiac returned to the Sea Lion with people vowing to never again wash the hands that had just touched a whale!
After an afternoon of our sharing experiences and photos, Naturalist Pete Pederson gave his program about the natural history of gray whales. Undersea Specialist Mike Greenfelder presented underwater footage of the whales that he shot with our Splash Cam during the day’s adventures.
Just a few whale and human generations ago, Laguna San Ignacio was the scene of massive slaughter. Today is evidence of a compelling transformation that we were fortunate enough to experience.
From the mid eighteenth century through the early twentieth century, this lagoon was the site of whaling operations that left gray whales on the edge of extinction. The whales were once known as “devil fish” because of their fierce actions to protect themselves and their young. In the 1920s after the revolution, Mexico passed the world’s first marine mammal protection laws. Since then, grays have increased in population to pre-whaling numbers, more than 20,000.
Today, some gray whales are called “friendly” due to their unique behavior of approaching small boats and interacting with people. With great anticipation this morning, we boarded Zodiacs for the journey into Laguna San Ignacio. We were well rewarded with scores of whales, and even recorded some spy hopping and other surface behaviors. Numerous “friendly” cow-calf pairs approached our boats. In some cases, females lifted or gently pushed their two-month old calves to be next to us. Zodiac after Zodiac returned to the Sea Lion with people vowing to never again wash the hands that had just touched a whale!
After an afternoon of our sharing experiences and photos, Naturalist Pete Pederson gave his program about the natural history of gray whales. Undersea Specialist Mike Greenfelder presented underwater footage of the whales that he shot with our Splash Cam during the day’s adventures.
Just a few whale and human generations ago, Laguna San Ignacio was the scene of massive slaughter. Today is evidence of a compelling transformation that we were fortunate enough to experience.
