Laguna San Ignacio
The morning was spent among the gray whales as we again boarded the Zodiacs and re-entered the protected waters of San Ignacio Lagoon. Incredible interactions were had by all, and some of us were lucky enough to encounter a very playful mother whale that repeatedly opened her mouth exposing her baleen. The first recorded friendly gray whale encounter took place in San Ignacio Lagoon in the early 1970s and has since spread; at times, friendly encounters even seem to be abundant in San Ignacio. Seeing as though gray whales were hunted up until the 1960s, and that some of the mothers we were seeing may have been alive at that time, it is difficult to comprehend why these encounters take place. During the evening recap session we had a discussion of this phenomenon and why we as humans are so enthralled by gray whales and this interaction. The following are paraphrases of some of the responses to our experiences from the last two days.
“The whole interaction was stunning – food for the soul.”
“There is an unbelievable level of trust between the whales and the people, especially due to our history together.”
“Social intercourse, spiritual bonding – I felt incredible euphoria.”
“These animals are so huge, they could do away with us, but they choose not to.”
“They forgive us, even though we almost made them extinct.”
“We have this incredible love for them, even though they used to only be a product, an industry.”
“We love gray whales so much because they respond back to us.”
The morning was spent among the gray whales as we again boarded the Zodiacs and re-entered the protected waters of San Ignacio Lagoon. Incredible interactions were had by all, and some of us were lucky enough to encounter a very playful mother whale that repeatedly opened her mouth exposing her baleen. The first recorded friendly gray whale encounter took place in San Ignacio Lagoon in the early 1970s and has since spread; at times, friendly encounters even seem to be abundant in San Ignacio. Seeing as though gray whales were hunted up until the 1960s, and that some of the mothers we were seeing may have been alive at that time, it is difficult to comprehend why these encounters take place. During the evening recap session we had a discussion of this phenomenon and why we as humans are so enthralled by gray whales and this interaction. The following are paraphrases of some of the responses to our experiences from the last two days.
“The whole interaction was stunning – food for the soul.”
“There is an unbelievable level of trust between the whales and the people, especially due to our history together.”
“Social intercourse, spiritual bonding – I felt incredible euphoria.”
“These animals are so huge, they could do away with us, but they choose not to.”
“They forgive us, even though we almost made them extinct.”
“We have this incredible love for them, even though they used to only be a product, an industry.”
“We love gray whales so much because they respond back to us.”
