The last few days we have been searching around La Paz Bay. It is a very wide area starting in the south at San Lorenzo Channel where we have seen bottlenose dolphins and massive pods of common dolphins. Our airplane support pilot estimated more than 2000 individuals! From there, we continued south-west of the bay and encountered two humpback whales – very rare for this time of the year, but they were there and the juvenile was very active near the Gallant Lady.
Today we explored the north central part of they bay and soon after, our airplane support found a whale which was hard to identify from the air. We drove the RHIB near the whale and went along for maybe two miles while the whale, which we now believed was a Bryde’s whale, was heading south-east.
Another very interesting encounter today was a pod of maybe 30 dolphins that, from the distance, seemed to be bottlenose dolphins; however, once we got closer we found out that they were smaller and darker. Later checking our guide book onboard the Gallant Lady we identified them to be spotted dolphins.
These expedition trips are fantastic. The Sea of Cortez is always giving something new and interesting every day.
- Divemaster Juan onboard the Nautilus Gallant Lady
