Read
below for major whale watching locations and the differences between
them.
I’m asked over and over what
the differences are between one whale watch tour and another. There’s
much confusion about exactly what is included in a trip, where the
tour will actually go to, how many whales you can expect to see,
and just how many times you will get to go out on the water each
day to view the whales. Costs are extremely confusing because some
trips (such as ours) are truly all inclusive. (click
here for easy to understand comparison chart) While others don’t
include transportation or transfers or they tell you in very fine
print that they expect you to drive across the border and meet the
trip leader in Tijuana! Don't drive in Baja if you have never
traveled past Ensenada with an experienced Baja traveler.
Another tricky advertising ploy that I've noticed is the reference
to Kayaking on many of the tour operators web sites. Don't
be fooled. Ask them specifically if you will be allowed to
Kayak anywhere near to the whales. Mexican regulations specifically
prohibit kayaking near the whales. Also don't be fooled into
thinking that kayaks are environmentally better for the whales.
Whales know and identify boat motors. The noise allows the
whale to locate the boat well before the whale can see it.
With kayaks, the whales are frequently startled or frightened because
suddenly the kayaks appear next to them.
Several tours now price their
trips beginning in Loreto. We too, now offer a Loreto access
trip. You must purchase your transportation on AeroCalifornia
or Aero Mexico and then meet up with the tour in Baja at the Loreto
Airport. This places you in the position of dealing with customs,
immigration and flights and possible delays that don't really make
for an "all inclusive" trip. On the other hand this
allows you to spend time on the warmer East side of Baja either
before or after your whale watching adventure. The
hidden costs such as the air fare to Loreto that will make your
trip at least a couple hundred dollars more expensive than what
the "tour" cost is must be factored in when comparing
trip costs. If considering a Loreto access with whale watching
at Magdalena Bay keep in mind that each day you will leave your
Loreto motel/hotel and travel 2 to 3 hours each way to get to and
from Mag Bay. Our Loreto access trips still take you to Laguna
Ojo de Liebre and with far less total drive time than the daily
grind over to Magdalena Bay from Loreto. The Mag Bay
5 hours each day, compares with one trip of 4 1/2 hours for
our trips to get to our final destination at Guerrero Negro.
From our motel whale watching is about 30 minutes away.
Baja Jones Adventure Travel now
offers Loreto access. However with us you will not be whale
watching at Magdalena Bay. Rather we will transport you to
the best lagoon, the largest lagoon and the one that has over two
to three times as many whales at any time as either Mag Bay or San
Ignacio. That location is of course Laguna Ojo de Liebre (formerly
Scammon's Lagoon).
Let me say that most tour operators
believe they are giving you a good trip. Sadly, if they are not
in the best location, they just cannot give you the "best whale
watching experience to be found anywhere in the world". There
are only two locations that can say those words with complete honesty.
Those locations are Laguna Ojo de Liebre (formerly known as Scammon’s
Lagoon) and San Ignacio Lagoon .
Because Baja Jones is an integral
and active part of our operation, we are able to keep our overhead
costs bare bone. Keith leads most boat trips and is the best
gray whale naturalist available. We spend the money on your
trip, not on our office furniture. You will find out quickly
that when you deal with us, most communication is directly with
one of our owners. You get the facts and you get them directly
from us. There are many more expensive trips you can purchase.
There are none that treat you better or offer better whale watching
opportunities. There are many trips that either act as brokers,
actually placing you in someone else's San Ignacio camp. Some
of these have their own "trip" guide and some don't.
Other budget whale watching trips are offered by individuals or
groups who bring one or two groups each year. These are not
local "experts", but usually operators who have many other
trip interests each year. Your guides may or may not be highly
experienced with Baja gray whales.
If you are contemplating a whale
watching trip on the Gulf of California (formerly known as the Sea
of Cortez) then you should be aware that you will not be experiencing
the type of whale watching that you would experience at the two
premier locations. I say more about this near the bottom of
this comparison.
When I began our gray whale campaign
more than a dozen seasons ago, I had free choice to set up our home
base anywhere I wanted. It was a toss up between San Ignacio and
Guerrero Negro (the town adjacent to Laguna Ojo de Liebre). I was
leaning toward San Ignacio Lagoon because the media publicizes this
location and almost never mentions Laguna Ojo de Liebre. I
heard all the talk about "friendly" whales and like most
people at first I really thought that those whales are different
than the whales at Laguna Ojo de Liebre. Since then I have
learned that some of the same whales may be found in more than one
lagoon during the course of the whale watching season. Not
only that, but we have many really nice whales here in Laguna Ojo
de Liebre too.
Ultimately, Sandi (my wife) and
travel companion, swayed my final decision about where to locate,
with her very powerful argument that there were many people in the
world who didn’t relish spending a week sleeping on damp cots
and picking sand from their chicken tacos. Of course being Baja
Jones I had always accepted the sand and the lukewarm outside showers
as part of the trade off for getting to see the whales up close.
Another important factor when
judging a whale watching trip is the quality of information
that you will be given. Many of the whale watch tours tell you
that they use Mexican licensed guides who have years of experience.
This is true. We use them too. However, these guides (boat drivers)
seldom have a really in depth education about the whales as
a species. I have heard guides actually refer to a male, female
and baby trio as if the male and female were the parents of
that baby! Incredible. Those of you who travel with Baja Jones
will learn that gray whales mate, then separate. There are no
long term relations between gray whales. The mothers and babies
travel north together, but sometime during that summer of feeding
in the Arctic, the mother whale weans the baby, then leaves
the youngster to live his life alone.
Want to know if someone you are
talking with really knows their gray whales? Ask this question of
each person you talk to who claims to be a whale expert or gray
whale naturalist. "What keeps the inside of a whales’
mouth and their tongue from freezing or from getting frost bite
while they are feeding for months on end in the frigid Arctic Ocean?"
If they can give you an answer that contains the word vascular,
then they may very well be one of the rare "experts" who
knows their stuff. Every person who goes on one of our trips, leaves
knowing the answer to this and many other questions that seldom
get answered in the popular books.
For "World Class Whale Watching"
you must go to either San Ignacio or to Laguna Ojo de Liebre. Laguna
Ojo de Liebre is more difficult to say, but it has five times as
many whales, sometimes ten times as many, as does San Ignacio Lagoon.
Laguna Ojo de Liebre has about half as many whale watching boats
allowed in the lagoon observation area as does San Ignacio Lagoon.
This makes for a much more relaxed and exciting adventure.
Once you finish reading this comparison, I believe you will agree
with me.
PS: Laguna Ojo de Liebre
has two observation areas. Each of which is larger than the
single observation area at San Ignacio Lagoon. Consider this.
There are 16 pangas licensed to operate in the viewing area at San
Ignacio at one time. At Laguna Ojo de Liebre the inner lagoon
observation area only permits five pangas at any one time.
The outer lagoon observation area only permits 9 or 10 pangas at
any one time. This tight control over the quantity of pangas
makes for the most relaxed and rewarding whale watching experience
it is possible to get anywhere in the world today. And that
is why my clients go to Laguna Ojo de Liebre. There they get
to experience two separate and distinct trips, by visiting both
observation areas.
If you go out of La Paz or Cabo
you will not be viewing whales inside a protected lagoon. The whale
watch boats there go out into the Gulf or into the open Pacific
Ocean. You will go in search of whales and likely see some if you
are there in the season, January through March. How close you get,
how often you get close, whether the boat will be taking water over
the bow and whether you get seasick are all questions that, when
answered, usually fall short of the standard set by the two best
locations. You will almost certainly not see any mother and baby
pairs on trips off the south cape. Mostly male whales frolicking
in the warm southern water. Mating activity will likely be absent.
Some people fly to La Paz or
Cabo and then travel to Magdalena Bay. This is always less expensive
than traveling to either of the two PRIME locations. Those
travelers who choose Magdalena Bay will probably enjoy better whale
watching than will those who choose the open Pacific Ocean or Gulf
of California whale watching trips. However Mag Bay is not the equal
of San Ignacio nor of Laguna Ojo de Liebre. It is more sheltered
than the open ocean viewing. The water is rougher than at either
of the two PRIME locations. Magdalena Bay does have mother and baby
pairs to see. Although not as many as either of the better
spots.
Magdalena Bay also has a free
for all atmosphere that is not relaxing and not the type of memory
I want my clients to carry with them. Magdalena Bay is by far the
lagoon with the weakest enforcement of regulations. Some reputable
whale watch operators at Mag Bay have moved their camps to remote
and distant locations in the Bay in order to partially shelter their
clients from the free for all activity.
I believe that strict regulations
governing speed, quantity of boats on the water, how close a boat
may approach to a whale and many other aspects of whale watching
are an important part of protecting the animals. The regulations
in effect and how they are enforced at Laguna Ojo de Liebre and
San Ignacio Lagoon offer the whales strong protection while allowing
truly "world class" whale watching. Until Mag Bay gets
this form of regulation and enforcement it will never give an experience
to equal what is commonplace at the other lagoons.
At Magdalena Bay the pangeras
have been known to race directly at the whales, competing against
one another to get close. There are regulations on the books, but
they are poorly enforced at this lagoon because it is outside the
Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve. Kayaks and inflatables are still
permitted to approach close to the whales due to a shortage of enforcement
officials. This uncontrolled activity is not conducive to the atmosphere
that allows the other two lagoons to claim the "best whale
watching anywhere". Am I prejudiced about this issue?
Yes, I am. Am I unfairly biased? No, I am not.
Last of all, look at a map of
this portion of Baja. You will see that Laguna Ojo de Liebre
lies in a giant bowl and funnel formed by the Malarrimo shoreline
and Cedros Island. This funnel effect tends to guide the migrating
whales to the opening of Laguna Ojo de Liebre. It is my theory
that only those whales who miss the "funnel" and accidentally
pass by get to San Ignacio or Mag. Bay. I have theorized that
the difficult and very long migration places such stress on the
mother whales that they want to stop as soon as possible.
Only if they accidentally swim by the small opening at Laguna Ojo
de Liebre would they choose to continue south. Then of course
if they happen to pass by the opening at San Ignacio they eventually
come upon Mag. Bay. It is virtually impossible to miss this.
So the unluckiest mother whales or those with the poorest
navigation skills are the ones who eventually find their way to
Magdalena Bay.
By past official census counts
it is clear that most whales choose to enter at Laguna Ojo
de Liebre and end their arduous journey at the earliest point.