Gray Whale Census March 09, 2012 - San Ignacio Lagoon

Gray Whale Census for San Ignacio Lagoon

March 09, 2012

Gray Whale Adults:   232
Gray Whale Calves:     91

Total Gray Whales:   323

**an incredible number of Gray Whales in the lagoon this time of year........

Guide Report: Week of Feb. 28-Mar04

Guide Report: week of Feb. 28 thru Mar. 04

By Maria Aguilar Murillo

Espanol:

Semana del 28-4 de marzo

Hola,

Disfrutamos de muchas ballenas, pudimos pasar a ver como los pescadores sacaban unas hachas y los más valientes se atrevieron a probarlos crudos. También hubo quienes practicaron haciéndose unas tortillas a mano, actividad muy divertida tanto para los turistas como para las cocineras. A la hora del bajamar nos fuimos para buscar unos pulpos, encontramos varios y los turistas metían la mano en las cuevas para tocarlos. Muy Buena semana!

English:

Week of Feb.28-04 March

Hello

We enjoyed many whales, we then movee to see how the fishermen pulled a few scallops and the bravest dared to try them raw. There were also those who practiced doing a few tortillas by hand, very fun activity for both guests and the cooks. When the low tide happened we went to look for some Octopus and found several. Guests got to put their hands in the holes to play them. Very good week!

Guide Report Week of: Mar. 04 thru 08

Guide Report: March 04 thru 08

San Ignacio Lagoon

Hola

Weather: Highs in the mid 50's to upper 70's

               Lows in the mid 30's to upper 40's

Winds between 7mph to 40 mph

    This group had an excellent start off as well. They had three beautiful days playing with friendly moms and calves. Some guest had the opportunity to touch the baleen and even see the tongue of a baby! When a whale is friendly and next to the boat we encourage the viewers to reach out their hands for a scratch on the mouth. This strategy often ends with the friendly mouth opening up with a huge smile. Then you can reach in and touch the baleen while dragging your hand gently across the jawline. Sometimes a hitchhiker (sea lice) will attach itself to your finger. If that's the case, it does NOT hurt but we'd like to keep the lice as a sample to bring back to our camp for a closer observation under the lighted microscope.

  We had five researchers from NOAA join us at the camp. They wanted to  place satellite tags on twenty of the gray whales before the whales start the journey up north back to Alaska. The researchers were able to accomplish this in two full days of work. The tags will hopefully stay on for a full migration but often will fall off in a matter of a month. You can follow the tracking at this website

http://swfsc.noaa.gov/PRD-GrayWhale-tracking/  

……May the whales have a safe journey up north!

Guide Report: Week of Feb. 29 - Mar. 04

Guide Report: February 29 thru March 04

San Ignacio Lagoon

Hola!

Week of 29th of Feb and 4th of March

Weather: Highs from mid 50's to upper 70's

               Lows in the 30's to upper 40's

    Where do I start..........? This group had the best first day of whale watching that I have ever seen. We had a beautiful morning cruise in the ponga to the observation area and found some splashing about off on the horizon. It was three whales involved in a mating ritual. We observed a couple of other males and another female moved in on the action as well. Spring has been sprung! We moved on to find an extremely happy mother and calve nearby. We played for the rest of the whale watching segment with them as the whales would gently glide from one side of the boat to another. They gave everyone an equal amount of time to pet and scratch as they would spyhop next to the boat and submerge back down. When the time was up for our segment of fun with the whales we returned back to the camp. As all the guest filled into the dinning hall, there was an eruption of excitement as they told each other there experience with the mighty "devilfish."

Guide Report: Week of Feb. 25-29

Guide Report: Feb. 25 – 29

By:  Maria Agular Murillo

Spanish:

En la semana del 25 al 29,  Los turistas tuvieron a oportunidad de tocar y besar las ballenas. tuvimos tambien la oportunidad de mostrarles como sacan el callo de hacha, nos acercamos a una de las embarcaciones de los pescadores, nos regalo unas hachasy los mas valientes se atrevieron a probarlos crudos y conocerlos vivos.

English:

During the week of February 25 to 29, our guests had to opportunity to touch and kiss the whales. We also had the opportunity to show them how the local fishermen extract the “callo de hacha” (a type of scallop). There was a local fishing boat near the camp fishing the “callos” and they gave to us a “callo” and a few of our valiant guests tried them raw to know how they tasted. 

Guide Report Feb. 25-29

Hola!

 Week of Feb. 25 - 29, 2012

Weather: Highs in the mid 50's and upper 60's

               Lows in the 30's and lower 40's

    This group had some extreme whale watching days where winds reached at times around 26 mph while we were in the observation area. We all still had a great time playing with the whales. I had the chance to introduce this group to a male whale with the name of "Barni" short for barnacle. Barni had only acorn barnacles on his left side of his face. We joked that he must have been and left side eater. In which, maybe he would only feed on the left and pick up the

hitchhikers along the way. Barni is always happy to play with us. He must be around the age from four to six. He still has time to always play with our boats, which most males do not. Sometimes pacing back and forth to make sure everyone has a chance to touch :) We first met barni a couple trips ago and has been a great friend to have around. Even when the swells were building and most whales were only spy-hopping. He still came over to play!!! We had a great time sharing a whale of a tale with each other. Enclosed is a picture of Barni with

no barnacles on his right side of his face and whale we had named "Bam-bam." Since this calf could not control itself in the strong winds and current  it would collide with the side of the ponga from time to time. Another awesome group to have around :) We star gazed with the planets Jupiter, Venus and Mars sharing the sky with the crescent moon. The constellations out here are fantastic! They are at times crystal clear!

All the best,

Christopher Match

Guide Report: Feb. 21-25

Week of 21st to 25th of Feb

Weather: Highs in mid 50's to upper 70's

                Lows in mid 30's to upper 40's

   This was the first time that I've viewed whales mating in the observation area with still having a chance to play with a mother and calf!! Usually all the mothers and calves are far away working on swimming lessons and controlled movements of the flukes (tails). This group really lucked out!! We had plenty of friendlies to play with on this trip. We watched nursing take place while the bottlenose dolphin circled around trying to get a sweet taste of the mother's milk. We had fantastic weather with barely a breeze on the laguna at times (which never really happens this time of the year). With this, we really had to monitor our power usage since our dinning hall/living room and kitchen are all ran off of the wind turbines. However, all of our guest cabins remained at full charge with there personal battery and inverter attached with a solar panel. :) We had enough water to go kayaking around the outer rim of the mangroves, while observing the

amazing bird life and sting rays circling around.--A great trip and time had by all!

All the best,

Christopher