Isla Rasa and Angel de la Guarda Island
This morning we woke up while navigating towards the Midriff Islands, the narrowest part of the Gulf of California. This is where cold underwater currents bring up nutrients to the surface of the sea, promoting the growth of plankton, which in turns will feed the rest of the food web in this part of the gulf. An abundance of anchovies, sardines and mackerel provide food to the seabirds that we admired this morning at Isla Rasa.
Enriqueta Velarde, the head researcher of Isla Rasa, came on board and gave us a talk on the main projects at the island. We learned that this island is the main nesting site for the world population of the Herman’s Gulls and for the Elegant and Royal Terns. After the talk, we proceeded to visit the researchers’ station in the island and then to visit the seabirds’ nesting colonies. We hiked in one line in order to avoid perturbation to the nesting birds, walking throughout pairs of Herman’s gulls’ chicks until we reached a low peak from which we were amazed by the colonies of hundreds of Elegant and Royal terns nesting in the valley of the island.
After our descent from the hike, we boarded our Zodiacs for a cruise around Isla Rasa, where we had the opportunity to observe these seabirds fishing for sardines and anchovies bringing them back to the colonies to feed their chicks. We also enjoyed some views of playful sea lions that reside in a close-by rockery.
We spent the afternoon traveling north through Ballenas (‘Whales’) Channel in search of dolphins and whales. Carlos gave a presentation on the fish of the Sea of Cortez, after which we arrived to a beautiful cove in the West side of Angel de la Guarda Island. We spent the rest of the afternoon, kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, diving and enjoying the pebble beach.
For a great closing to another awesome day, we enjoyed a barbeque on the beach while admiring an unforgettable sunset followed by a bon-fire, Alberto’s guitar and star gazing.
This morning we woke up while navigating towards the Midriff Islands, the narrowest part of the Gulf of California. This is where cold underwater currents bring up nutrients to the surface of the sea, promoting the growth of plankton, which in turns will feed the rest of the food web in this part of the gulf. An abundance of anchovies, sardines and mackerel provide food to the seabirds that we admired this morning at Isla Rasa.
Enriqueta Velarde, the head researcher of Isla Rasa, came on board and gave us a talk on the main projects at the island. We learned that this island is the main nesting site for the world population of the Herman’s Gulls and for the Elegant and Royal Terns. After the talk, we proceeded to visit the researchers’ station in the island and then to visit the seabirds’ nesting colonies. We hiked in one line in order to avoid perturbation to the nesting birds, walking throughout pairs of Herman’s gulls’ chicks until we reached a low peak from which we were amazed by the colonies of hundreds of Elegant and Royal terns nesting in the valley of the island.
After our descent from the hike, we boarded our Zodiacs for a cruise around Isla Rasa, where we had the opportunity to observe these seabirds fishing for sardines and anchovies bringing them back to the colonies to feed their chicks. We also enjoyed some views of playful sea lions that reside in a close-by rockery.
We spent the afternoon traveling north through Ballenas (‘Whales’) Channel in search of dolphins and whales. Carlos gave a presentation on the fish of the Sea of Cortez, after which we arrived to a beautiful cove in the West side of Angel de la Guarda Island. We spent the rest of the afternoon, kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, diving and enjoying the pebble beach.
For a great closing to another awesome day, we enjoyed a barbeque on the beach while admiring an unforgettable sunset followed by a bon-fire, Alberto’s guitar and star gazing.
