Wind was a constant part of week 3 but we managed to still get 2 full and long days at sea and one shorter one, plus another great visit to the gray whales over in Magdalena Bay. The week began with greenish water and we still had not seen the endless particulate matter floating past that we are accustomed to here. But in mid-week things changed, and we saw water full of particulate that we normally associate with the early season here, before the richest bounty of krill appear. So in this season of not very many different individual blue whales we are now hopeful that many more may arrive in the coming week or two. Time will tell.
Meanwhile we did see the seasons first fin whale, we re-sighted a brydes whale which had common dolphins bow-riding it. We saw many large pods of dolphins, and this year has continued to provide countless bait balls with hundreds if not thousands of associated diving birds and dolphins. We enjoyed another visit to the sea lions at the twin islands of Galleras, and we also saw the first red-billed tropicbird of the year. Saturday produced the biggest north wind we have seen in years. And it must be noted how cold it was this week. Some of the early mornings at sea were shockingly cold, and even daytime highs only reached the mid-60’s.
A big part of week 3 were the many old friends that were here and lots of brainstorming sessions on how we might be more successful in helping the light of the worlds blue whales. It is amazing even in a year that so far has not graced us with our normal numbers of whales, how we still see so much life, such a varied collection of whale species and how we do see blue whales almost every single day.
Please stay tuned for more images and words next week.
Michael Fishbach
