whale talker

The Baja California Penninsula from Space

I am happy to report that after 10 years of planning to study our reef here I have FINALLY determined the optimum placement of my transect (this is an imaginary line between to stations 150’ apart) and with the help of my very dear friends Alan, Marilyn and Jorge (George Sievers) we have actually placed the anchor stations and I am now ready to begin a “Baseline Survey”………perseverance furthers. Eh?

The Reef from Space

Though I consider the work with my Humpback Friends as my primary conservation contribution at this time in my life, The Reef is possibly a more critical study. We are losing our reefs at a truly alarming rate and need to address this degradation with swift and clear action. A Baseline Survey is the starting point for collecting data that can be used to convince those who are ignorant of the basic dynamics of the Marine World to recognize the seriousness of the situation (BP is a classic example of those who have immense power and are either ignorant or heartless).


I want to thank publicly and personally the help given to me by the aforementioned people (Alan, Marilyn and Jorge) because without their help it would be much, much more difficult. It took 3 days of “teamwork” for the 4 of us to complete the anchoring process and this morning, with the aid of Alan (I couldn’t free dive to the anchor depth without terrible pain to my long ago damaged left ear), we have the transect ready to go. This is going to be great fun and really not difficult work now that the anchors are in place.

Last weekend was Cardonal’s annual fishing tournament and though a good number of boats went out nobody did all that well. In fact the season for fisherman has not been at all good so far this year. Jorge saw some whales that day and so did Vicente. This fired me up for a paddle out to The Whale Zone and damned if I didn’t see a Humpback fluking up about ¼ mile from me. I tried for an intercept but saw no more blows so I just got in some heavy exercise.

"Perla" daughter of one of our village fisherman

I doubt I will be lucky enough to see any more whales for the year but who knows? That is one of the many things I love about being at Sea….you just never know what is going to greet you! The other day while setting the anchors I swam head on (not crashing) into a Sea Turtle and shortly after saw a Zebra Moray Eel. Then I heard Alan and Marilyn announce that there was a Spotted Eagle Ray under them….way cool. It just goes on!!!