It’s Blue Whale season in Loreto!

Written by Cristóbal González Comella and Michael Fishbach

Our research team, consisting of our founders, Michael Fishbach and Heather Watrous, along with their son Galen who is this year’s main photographer, and Cristóbal González our Regional Director in Latin America, have had a highly productive year photo-identifying Blue Whales among other great whale species that inhabit the rich waters of the Sea of Cortez or Gulf of California as it known in other parts of the world.

This is Michael’s 32^nd year coming down to Loreto to photo-ID Blue Whales, bringing guests from all over the world during those years, including film production teams from the BBC and National Geographic. This year our guests consisted of people from Michael and Heather’s local community in Celo, North Carolina, along with a few travelers from Yosemite National Park in California, both very different places geographically than what Loreto offers, which is the mountain desert paradise that meets the majestic blue of the Sea of Cortez. It is safe to say that our guests left with smiles on their faces, filled with memorable moments encountering Blue Whales, Humpback Whales, Bottlenose Dolphins, Long-beaked Common Dolphins, and even Hummingbirds, among other endemic animals that live in these plentiful waters and lands.  

We have only been here 2 weeks but the number of blue whales we have identified already surpasses what we typically see in an average year where we spent a month and a half here.

So far, the year is potentially setting up to be a record breaker in terms of the total amount of Blue Whales that are photo-identified, which is of 61 Blue Whales in one season. So far the count, though not precise at the moment until confirmed in the photography room, is currently over 50 Blue Whales, with a solid week still left ahead to collect more photo-ID’s. There have been multiple days where the team has photo-identified double-digit numbers of Blue Whales, with one of those days potentially reaching more than 21 Blue Whales, which would be a single day record for Michael and his team.

Picture by Galen Fishbach Waters

The food is plentiful, and whales surface feeding has been observed everyday. Diversity has been low however, all whales have been blue and humpback with the lone exception being a mother and calf fin whale pair. Dolphin numbers have been lower than normal, and pelagic bird life seems to be close to average. The desert is greener than usual due to some winter rains. And we even had thunder, lightning (we drove the boat away from it) and rain on the sea late one day.

Blue Whales, along with all other great whales, are invaluable contributors to the balance of the global ecosystem. Protecting whales is a responsibility we must take on collectively to safeguard our oceans for future generations.   

Picture by Galen Fishbach Waters

In our next newsletter we will have an update with the total number of Blue Whales that we photo-identified along with the final summary of our research in Loreto, México, to see if we were able to increase our record of Blue Whale photo-ids in one season.