Starting October 18th 2009 until April 28th 2010 I have been hired by Lindblad Expeditions as a deckhand for the National Geographic Sea Bird. Our destination is the beautiful and diverse Sea of Cortez, where we will closely observe the abundance of marine life and explore the delicate collection of islands dispersed throughout this gorgeous sea.
April 6th. Isla San Esteban- Today we landed on Isla San Esteban which is home to the endemic spiny-tail iguana as well as the Pinto chuckwalla. It is also the furthest north we have been all season. It is a typical baja island; dry, rocky, and filled with cactus. The cordon cactus were blooming, and the yellow billed gulls were nesting on the shore. It was a beautiful setting and beckoned me to come run through the arroyos. Assistant Engineer Chaz and myself headed into the quotidian arroyo scene armed with our canon rebels, where we perambulated about in search of charismatic reptiles. We were told that 10:30 am is the magical hour where suddenly Chuckwallas come out of their slumber. And that time proved to be exactly right! 100 yards into the Island we got our first glimpse of a spiny-tail iguana. It was all shades of grey with a couple black patches. It didn’t seem too startled by its human spectators, and leisurely walked off into its world of rocks and cacti. The entire group of guests and naturalists headed off in all directions hoping to find these endemic creatures. Chaz and I headed in the opposite direction than all the guests for a more extensive search. The first few hundred yards we didn’t see any pinto Chuckwallas, but a few minutes before 10:30 we found out first one. He was just warming up for the day and was quite lethargic allowing us to get very close. This was my first ever sighting of a pinto Chuckwalla and I was quite impressed. We spent the next two hours running through desert arroyos, crumbling rocks, cordon cactus, and startling chuckwallas every few steps. We must have seen 15-20 and heard twice that amount scampering off in fear as we approached. It was a very special day and it is one of the islands that I’m sorry to not have spent more time exploring.
March Madness; Cetaceans, Culebras, Cormorants, Bioluminescence, and a Cornocopia of Ballenas
This past month has been by far the most remarkable when it comes to marine life encounters. Blue whales have been plentiful, the Humpbacks have been breaching consistently at Gorda Banks, dolphins have been surfing the bow, and of course the Grey Whales continue to leave the guests enthralled. In addition to all these amazing interactions with these beautiful creatures, I must relate a couple other encounters I’ve been fortunate enough to witness.
Whale Sharks- March 6th marks the first day I have both seen and swam with a whale shark. Around noon on this unusually overcast Baja day senior deckhand Justin took out one of our zodiacs while we were docked in La Paz, to see ifhe could find the resident whale sharks that are known to live in the shallows of the La Paz bay. About an hour later we received a very excited radio transmission on 88 Alpha telling the Sea Bird that his mission was a success. Luckily, Chief Mate Shawn Nettles, is a southern gentleman and let both myself and Bosun Jordan take a quick work break and attempt to find the elusive whale shark. After charging the choppy bay for 15 minutes in the zodiac we meet up with Justin. Upon arrival he just pointed in the direction of a small ripple in the water, and told us to get our asses in there. Jordan and I stripped down, grabbed our snorkel masks and dove in the direction Justin pointed. I had never seen a whale shark, let alone swim with one, so my heart pounding as I swam through the cloudy water. I was expecting the creature to be directly ahead of my when suddenly its enormous head came into my peripheral only 5 ft away. Despite knowing that it was harmless, I was shocked out of my mind as this 20 ft plus white and grey speckled fish glided past me. Below it was a school of about 30 mackerel while 2 remoras attached themselves to its left pectoral fin. We swam with it for about 30 seconds five or six different times, but in the end had to get back to work. As far as a work break goes, it can’t get much better than that! March 20th four of us went back only to find 7 plus Whale sharks in calmer seas and better visibility. They are amazing animals to say the least and it was a powerful experience.
Bioluminescence- March 24th 3:30 am 30 miles north of Isla Carmen. I was on bridge watch with 2nd mate when out of my left eye I saw 3 torpedoes leaving 30 ft tracers coming straight towards the port bow. Immediately I knew that Dolphins heading through extremely dense Bioluminescence was what we were seeing! I ran out of the bridge and down a level to the bow. While hanging on to the railing, I leaned over the railing and watched these three beautiful creatures glowing while gracefully surfing a few feet off the hull. I had always heard that seeing the dolphins dancing through the bioluminescence is quite the treat, but I didn’t realize just how beautiful it could be. Here I was at 3:30 in the morning on a warm starry night watching as three dolphins playful movements were illuminated such that the bare eye could see a full silhouette. The Cortez Sea was as calm as I had ever seen it and there was no sound but the soft humming of our engines, the splash as we displaced the water, and an occasional dolphin squeak. I can assure you that my smile could not have been any bigger!
Coachwhip- San Jose del Cabo Marina -March 25th- Just on the other side of the dock we found a 3.5 ft coachwhip swimming through the water and eventually climbing the marina wall into the safety of a rock outcropping.
Cormorants-9am-10:30 a.m Magdalena bay March 28th.While anchored a few miles off of Puerto San Carlos at sand dollar beach in Magdalena Bay I was lucky enough to see a winged migration. Around nine in the morning I started to notice an unusual amount or bird activity of the starboard beam. Once I finally paid attention I saw that there were hundreds of cormorants flying north. After about 5 minutes I thought that I was seeing an unusual amount of cormorants. Another 5 minutes went by…same thoughts. Looking south as far as I could see was a continuous black line slithering along the waters surface. Amazingly that line remained for over an hour and now spread as far as I could see south and headed as far as the eye could see north. Never have I seen so many birds at one time. Occasionally a small V of cormorants would be led by a huge brown pelican. It was quite odd and I must have at least seen 20 separate pelicans leading their smaller followers.
Transient Orca- 4 miles west of isla Magdalena we encountered our first and most likely only pod of Orcas for the season. This sighting was completely unexpected and was follwed by cheers of joy. We had one pod of 12-14 orcas surrounding our vessel for an hour. There were two cute little calfs that barely left their mothers sides. One was missing the top half of its dorsal fin and looked like it had been bitten off.The whales took turns going underneath and all around the ship. I was upon the lido deck which proved to be an ideal photo taking location. All the naturalists said that it was rare to see these whales in this spot, but they still couldn’t say whether or not they were residents of baja or transients on a journey. One of the more detailed photos taken by our undersea specialist Carlos Navarro showed Humboldt squid tentacles hanging out of ones mouth. We also saw a few mahi mahi in the area as well as one very startled sea lion. Carlos told me that resident orcas will rarely eat the sea lions, whereas transients definitely would. Either they were transients stuffed from the delicious squid feast, or baja residents who had no need to pursue the lone sea lion.
