San Ignacio Gray Whales
Extraordinary Interaction & Experience
An incredible week on the Nautilus Gallant Lady! Lots of time with schooling mobula rays and wild orca! The crew is amazing and very careful in how they approach the whales and all wildlife. Very much appreciated their respectful approach to engaging with the animals. The Gallant Lady is a beautiful boat run by total pros! Can’t wait to get on another Nautilus trip!
Read MoreIt’s hard to explain the magnitude of what we saw because we didn’t just see mobula rays, not just see dolphins, or killer whales, but we were able to experience behavior which is something very special and it was thanks to the crew that was able to put us in great position every time and give us the time without rushing us.
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Thanks to our spotter plane, we are now able to spot them quite easily, they normally congregate in groups of up to 10,000! We notice they are more active and breach more often when the sun goes down, we call it ”the sunset show”. One of the coolest behaviours Katie and I enjoy watching is the courtship behaviour, when a small group of males chases a female, she often times try to be evasive twisting and turning in different directions while the males mirror her movements, from above it looks like a beautiful slow-motion dance.
Read MoreThe orca and mobulas safari up the Sea of Cortez has to be the most exciting trip I have been part of as a Nautilus crew. From the moment the sun rises, until well after it sets behind the cactus of the Baja coast, we are looking eagerly for all the wildlife we can find in these waters…and there is plenty! Thanks to our airplane giving support, we could spot a pod of six to eight orcas yesterday. After a short ride, we ended up being the only boat around that orca family, who cruised at a languid pace for 3 hours, allowing us to jump more than 10 times, and have a close look at them and them at us. As I was maneuvering the Galant lady ahead of the tender, to keep track of the pod, the whole family of orcas surrounded the boat. It was insane! the size of these orcas is impressive, their rounded shape and brilliant black and white skin, they truly are the pandas of the ocean! They were so close to the boat that taking turns, captain Gordon and I were able to jump in for a swim with these beautiful animals.
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Roca saved the best for last with a 12 metre whale shark, along with a manta in one of the dives. Simply unbelievable. When we turned around the corner, schools of Galapagos was covering the bottom blue of Roca Partida!
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When we finished our dive the sea lions came up beside the zodiac and started jumping around as if to say “Where are you all going, we want to play with you!”
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On the second dive the current had changed direction so we went to the east side to drift dive and we encountered a piece of old net. While following it we saw it had 6 huge slipper lobsters tangled in it! Everyone that was with our group started to take out their baby knives and Rambo knives to set the lobsters free.
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