Seaflow Goes to Baja

Can you stand some good news? The grey whales are back.

In 1970, the grey whale population was fewer than 2,000. Gray whales were placed on the endangered species list in 1970 but by 1994 they had recovered so well that their species was removed from the list. Now, according to the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, there are more than 18,000 gray whales migrating between Alaska and Mexico. They travel astonishing distances during their migration from Mexico, some reaching as far as the Arctic Circle in summer.

I recently ventured to San Ignacio Lagoon on the Pacific coast of Baja Sur, the birthing grounds where the gray whales are notoriously friendly. There, Gabriel Arturo Zaragoze, chief of the Mexican government’s whale census counted 800 baby whales. I can believe it. There were whales everywhere! I went with a group from Seaflow (http://www.seaflow.org), a Sausalito, California, based single-issue organization that is dedicated to protecting all marine life from active sonars and other lethal ocean noise pollution.

Led by Pancho Mayoral , the son of Pachico, who first made peaceful contact with the whales in this lagoon, we sped towards the whales in small motor boats. The mothers seemed to urge their babies towards us. Four month old babies weighing 1,000 pounds! The full-grown mothers can be 46 feet long and weigh between 22 and 40 tons. The babies poked their heads up along the sides of our boats and we petted them and kissed them! Their skin is a beautiful light grey with the feel of soft rubber, and covered with beautiful asterisk shaped white star like barnacles.

Besides our thrilling interactions with the whales out on the lagoon, we were honored to hear Pachico Mayoral’s account of how he first touched a whale in 1972. Previously, the fishermen feared these mammoth sized animals known as “devil-fish”, and it took years to convince them that they were indeed friendly, gentle and playful.

Many fishermen along the Pacific coast in Baja have switched from scallops and sea bass to whale-watching because their earning are so much higher. It is now a $1 billion industry in 87 countries, up from 31 countries in 1991. Let’s hope this industry keeps destructive schemes at bay as it did in when Mitsubishi proposed a salt factory at the edge of San Ignacio Lagoon. As with most environmental victories, the shadow of this one still looms with rumors that Mitsubishi is back and might be successful this time with a different, more needy economy, and a different administration. For more information on the future of the lagoon, go to: http://www.dickrussell.org/articles/nothomefree.htm

For more information see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38433-2005Feb19