Baja - News and Views

A few nudibranchs from our last trip

2009-07-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

2009-01-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

With the winter and spring camping season upon us in Baja, I wanted to put up an offer from the Good Sam Club that offers half priced camping and RV parking. I don't know about its applicability in Baja, but it might be worth a look for you serious travelers.

Save 50% on Campground Rates with Camp Club USA

Name that Cetacean

2008-06-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

We encountered this small pod of cetaceans a little while ago at Isla Cerralvo near the dive site of La Reyna. We never got close enough to make a good identification, but did get a few shots through a long telephoto lens. The general consensus on the boat was that these were not dolphins based on their behavior and fluke morphology, but beyond that, we were at a loss. Being an invertebrate nerd, mammal identification isn’t my forte, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone can help make an id, or point me to a resource for identifying cetaceans by their flukes and dorsal fins. A few people on board suggested that they might be short finned (Pacific) pilot whales Globicephana macrohynchus. If anyone wants to take a crack at it, please do! If you click on the picture, you will be able to see a larger image.

Moderate Earthquake Shakes Baja

2008-02-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

A moderate earthquake shook northern Baja Mexico this past Friday. Centered about sixteen miles southeast of Mexicali and 100 miles east of Tijuana, the quake registered a magnitude of 5.4. At least fifteen aftershocks were also felt, including four with magnitudes ranging from 3.0-3.8.
No injuries were reported from these quakes, and damage was minimal. The 24-hour Sony Corp., Honeywell International Inc., and other major manufacturing factory operations were suspended and about 80,000 workers were evacuated while the buildings were checked for damage. About 400,000 residents were without power, and over a million were without cellular service.
Baja California is no stranger to seismic activity. The Sea of Cortez is essentially an extension of the fault lines that regularly shake southern California. Dormant volcanoes dot the landscape as one progresses along the peninsula, and in some areas, hot water seeps are a testament to the ongoing geologic activity of the region.
Minor shudders and earth trembles are regular occurrences throughout Baja, but the last time that an earthquake of this magnitude was felt was in 2006, when another 5.4 earthquake hit Mexicali. No injuries or damage were reported in the 2006 quake either.

New Features at SeaCortez.com

2008-01-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we have added a user image gallery at Seacortez.com! You can now set up your own picture galleries and post images in the forums. We are looking forward to seeing everyones (Sea of Cortez related) photos! To get there, go to the Sea of Cortez Forum and click the user gallery button at the top of the page.

Sperm Whales & Advanced Diving at Tortuga

2007-12-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

As Isla Tortuga begins to grow large in the horizon, all eyes continue to scan the smooth waters of the Sea of Cortez. Although we are all tired from a four hour crossing from the mainland of Mexico, we have seen many pods of dolphins, jumping sailfish, and even pilot and sperm whales warming themselves at the surface between deep dives.

Often our first sign of whales will be the burst of spray from their blow-holes as they breathe, or the sight of a massive fluke breaking the calm of the water surface.

The south point of Isla Tortuga is a steep and rugged cliff face formed by the lava flows of many eruptions of the nearby volcanoes. The entire Sea of Cortez is a strongly volcanic region, and is itself formed by the slow march of two of Earth's plates diverging.

Below water, the rugged volcanic face continues into a steep wall where scuba divers may encounter any of the treasures of the Sea of Cortez; from the tiny but beautiful Cortez rainbow wrasses, to the majestic arcing wings of manta rays with wingspans exceeding twenty feet. Drawn to the south tip of Tortuga by strong currents, they are much better equipped than humans to handle the conditions here. The south tip is probably the most advanced dive site at Isla Tortuga, and can only be dived when currents are at their most mild.

Best Baja Invertebrate Guides

2007-12-02T22:23:00.000-08:00

Now the fish are the favorites of most travelers to the Sea of Cortez, but I've always been most taken with the invertebrates. Unfortunately, the best guides to the Sea of Cortez invertebrates are no longer in print. However, there are still some worthwhile contenders out there, and the old classics can still be found on occasion.

1) Common Intertidal Invertebrates of the Gulf of California This is the classic invertebrate work for the Gulf of California. It can occasionally be found used, but the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is reprinting this work. I'm not sure if it can be purchased online, but it is available in their gift shop. It's $75, but well worth it if you're serious about your marine invertebrates. (and who isn't - right?)

2) Brusca, R.C., E. Kimrey and W. Moore. Seashore Guide to the Northern Gulf of California. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Also available at the Desert Museum, this is basically a lite version of his earlier work above.

3) Sea of Cortez Marine Invertebrates - 2nd Edition (Revised) In this, the second edition of the beautiful little guide to many of the invertebrates of the Sea of Cortez, are numerous images by the naturalist and photographer, Alex Kerstitch. Sadly, Alex has passed on, but his contributions to the understanding of the Sea of Cortez are innumerable. Hans Bertsch has done a fine job of updating the work while keeping with Alex's flair for documenting the uncommon.

Best Baja Fish Guides

2007-12-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with my best guides to Baja are the guides nearest and dearest to my heart - the critter guides!

Fish Guides:
1) Reef Fish Identification: Baja to Panama This one isn't first on my list just because it has a few of my photos in it... but it doesn't hurt! The Baja to Panama edition of Paul Humann's Reef Fish series also contains more easy to use pretty pictures and concise descriptions than any other reference I am aware of. It is a very good work although I do find the organization a little frustrating - it's by general shape / color etc, rather than by family. I think this probably more of a pet peeve of mine and I can see how it would be useful for most individuals wanting to ID a fish.

2) Reef Fishes of the Sea of Cortez: The Rocky-Shore Fishes of the Gulf of California This work is THE bible for ichthyologists working in the Sea of Cortez! My first trip into Baja (1992) was with two of the authors, Thomson and Kerstitch, for 5 weeks. Their guidance and friendship is what inspired me to continue along my chosen path. When we first traveled in 1992, the first edition was out of print and we were working from photocopied pages in a ziplock, but the new second edition is out and has been expanded with many new sections. It's not a lightweight guide, but it goes into the marine fishes of the region like no other.

3) Sea of Cortez Marine Animals: A Guide to the Common Fishes and Invertebrates Baja California to Panama This guide is quite the opposite of the first two. It is indeed lightweight, covering only the most common organisms, both fish and invertebrates. For a casual scuba diver or snorkeler wishing to find out the name of a critter that they have encountered, it is generally sufficient and is well illustrated to boot.

Best Baja Travel Guides

2007-12-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

These next few posts may be a bit different than my usual, but I wanted to put out a list of my current favorite books about Baja and the Sea of Cortez. I'm a compulsive collector of field guides, travel guides, and scientific works about the region. I hope I'll be able to narrow down my collection to a few of the best and help out your holiday list-making if you're as interested about Baja and the Sea of Cortez as I am.

So, here are a few of my favorites for general travel guides.

1) Lonely Planet Baja California & Los Cabos (Lonely Planet Baja and Los Cabos)
The Lonely Planet guides are hard to beat for ease of use, and are kept relatively up to date. The new edition of their Baja guide is no exception, but as they are updated, they seem to be shrinking with less information about the history and biogeography of the region. However, for a straightforward "where to go and how to get there" type of guide, these are ideal travel companions.

2) Moon Handbooks Baja The Moon Handbooks Baja is a very enjoyable book - a bit more like what the Lonely Planet guides used to be. It is large (640 pages!) and packed with information about the history and sites of Baja. Some of the travel information is more dated than the Lonely Planet guide, but this is a wonderful compliment to the smaller guide. Having this along will definitely increase your enjoyment and appreciation of the Baja Peninsula by providing a worthwhile narrative to the little known history and culture of Baja.

3) Diving and Snorkeling the Sea of Cortez: The Most Complete Guide to Baja California's Best Sites - Includes the Islas de Revillagigedo (Socorro Islands) This diving guide by Susan Speck and Bruce Williams is a good introduction to diving in the Sea of Cortez. It is far from comprehensive, but does cover some of the better known sites as well as a few "secret" sites. Although there is much more to scuba diving in the Sea of Cortez than can be contained in 92 pages, this guide will give a very good general idea of what to expect in the various regions of the Sea of Cortez and Islas de Revillagigedo.

4) The Rough Guide to Baja California (Rough Guide Travel Guides) The Rough Guide to Baja California is another worthwhile guide. I don't find it to be quite as useful in "getting there" as the Lonely Planet guide, but stylistically it's a lot more fun to read and is still packed with good info, especially with regard to hotels, restaurants, and clubs.

5) The Baja Adventure Book The Baja Adventure Book by Walt Peterson is a true Baja classic. Much of the travel info for developed areas is FAR out of date, but the general info about the destinations and "off the beaten path" sites are still valuable and interesting. A good blend of destinations, history and factoids.

More photos scuba diving at Isla Tortuga

2007-10-29T23:47:00.000-07:00

A den of Panamic green moray eels on the west side of Isla Tortuga
Scuba divers often miss the diminutive denizens such as flatworms (Phylum Platyhelminthes)

Hermaphroditic Rainbow Wrasses

Giant Damselfish at Isla Tortuga

2007-10-20T21:43:00.000-07:00

Normally I'm not much of a fan of the damselfishes (pomacentridae). Sometimes pretty, they nonetheless have nasty personalities and I,m quite sure if they grew to the size of sharks, nobody would dare put a toe in the water. I suppose there is a certain amount of respect that these little devils deserve... A ten gram fish that will face off with a wandering diver's hand (and win) isn't short on chutzpah!
There one damsel that I am rather fond of in the Sea of Cortez, the giant damselfish, Microspathodon dorsalis. They are a little more shy than their smaller cousins, but will still charge a diver's mask if the diver recklessly wanders too close to their large nesting territory. They were out in force at Isla Tortuga, and become increasingly common as one moves south along the Baja peninsula.

Landscape & Geology of Baja's Isla Tortuga

2007-10-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos that show what a barren and rugged area this desert island is. Far from lush, Isla Tortuga possesses a starkness that creates a dramatic beauty contrasting with the diverse and abundant marine life surrounding the shores.

A wider view showing the thin layer of soil suitable for plant growth atop the unstable volcanic island

Cacti clinging to the edge near a fissure

The south tip of the island

Scuba Diving at Isla Tortuga

2007-10-19T00:10:00.000-07:00

A few more pics from recent trips to Isla Tortuga, a small volcanic island off the coast of Baja on the Sea of Cortez

Stone Scorpionfish

Scissortail Damselfish and Cortez King Angelfish

Closeup of an electric bullseye ray

Scuba Diving at Isla Tortuga

2007-10-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

I have been fortunate enough to be able to dive at Isla Tortuga a few times this summer. For those not familiar with Isla Tortuga, it is a small, barren, volcanic island positioned offshore between Santa Rosalia and Mulege on the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez. We crossed from San Carlos aboard the Ocean Spirit. It makes the crossing in about 3.5 hours, although it may take 4.5 grueling hours if the seas are rough.

Getting out of grad school and launching a business has kept me pretty busy these days, but I thought I would at least put up a few pictures from Isla Tortuga while I have the chance.

Stratified layers of lava flows and ash comprise the side of Isla Tortuga

An electric ray settles in for a rest on my fin

A Giant Damselfish protects his clutch of eggs

A pair of Moray Eels keep an eye on me as I pass

More to come soon after I resize additional pics!

Hurricane Henriette Hits Cabo San Lucas & Heads to Mainland

2007-09-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Henriette, although only a category 1 hurricane, has already left 7 dead and thousands homeless after it made landfall along Los Cabos at the Southern tip of Baja, Mexico. The primarily desert regions of Baja are not as prepared to withstand hurricane forces as well as the tropical regions of the Caribbean. Caribbean hurricanes are a normal though potentially devastating part of each fall, and the flora and fauna recover quickly from such poundings. In Baja, the sandy soils saturate with water rapidly and begin to slide. Lacking dense vegetation, flash floods and mudslides can be catastrophic.

I was fortunate enough to have passed through several Baja hurricanes relatively unscathed, but can attest to the power of even the smallest of these storms. In the summer of 92’, our entire caravan of scientists from the University of Arizona had to evacuate our camp in Cabo Pulmo with a Hurricane arrival. The drive to Cabo San Lucas, though a little scary was amazing with the wind lashing our trucks and shredding our tents. Luckily there were relatively few injuries, all of which resulted in our fine plan to go body surfing in the storm surge.

Henriette, is expected to reach the mainland later today between Topolobampo and Bahia Kino. Although the hurricane was disrupted as it crossed land from the Pacific to the Sea of Cortez, the Pacific system still produced winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour. The hurricane is now heading north at 12 mph and is about 70 miles from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Henriette may bring storm-surge flooding to Mexico as high as 5 feet (1.5 meters) above normal levels, “dangerous battering waves,'' and 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in mountainous areas, with the potential to cause “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides''. In response, Mexico has issued a hurricane warning from Topolobampo north to Bahia Kino and a tropical storm warning along the east coast of the Baja Peninsula from La Paz north to Loreto.

Reflections on the Sea of Cortez

2007-06-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

This will be a short post - Just an invitation to check out my new blog; Reflections on the Sea of Cortez. Unlike my primarily informational blogs about Baja and San Carlos, this blog promises to be more introspective. It will look back at the last fifteen years of my travels and studies in the Sea of Cortez, and hopefully it may inspire others with the same wonders I have seen in this desert sea.
Enjoy!

Endangered Sea of Cortez vaquita to receive conservation grant from SeaWorld. So what’s a vaquita?

2007-04-27T14:06:00.001-07:00

Introduction to the Vaquita
The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, a non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting species research, habitat protection, conservation education and animal rescue, recently awarded grants of more than $1.3 million to 112 environmental and research organizations worldwide. Included among the grant recipients was Oceanides, a conservation group in Mexico. Oceanides will receive $15,000 to study the critically endangered vaquita in the northern Sea of Cortez. So what then is a vaquita, why do we care if it is protected, and how might this be accomplished?

The vaquita, Phocoena sinus, is a small porpoise endemic to the northern Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California). The vaquita is considered to be the most critically endangered marine cetacean in the world. The order Cetacea contains all whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

With the recently declared functional extinction of the Baiji dolphin, Lipotes vexillifer, a freshwater dolphin which inhabited the Yangtze River in China, it seems appropriate to spend some time discussing this porpoise from our own backyard that is in desperate need of help.

In general terms, the vaquita is a small porpoise that reaches an approximate length of about 5 feet/1.5m and a weight of only 110lb/50kg. The vaquita is found only in the very northern reaches of the Sea of Cortez, including El Golfo de Santa Clara to San Felipe where it is most abundant near Rocas Consag. This is in fact the smallest range known to any marine cetacean with a water surface area of only 4000 km2.

The primary threat to vaquita survival is accidental entanglement in commercial fishing nets. Being air-breathing mammals, vaquitas will quickly drown after entanglement if the net prevents them from reaching the surface to breathe. The northern Sea of Cortez used to be the home of a massive fishing industry for the totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi, a large member of the croaker family (Sciaenidae) that is also an endemic of the Northern Sea of Cortez. Gill nets were placed in such numbers for this fish that the once abundant totoaba population was decimated and the totoaba itself became the first marine fish to be placed on the endangered species list in 1979. Although the vaquita was not a target of these gill nets, they were killed in great numbers through accidental encounters in the turbid waters of the northern Gulf. This resulted in tremendous losses from an already tiny population. Currently, the total number of surviving vaquitas is estimated to be a few hundred.

Part 2 of this series will examine in more detail, the biology and natural history of the vaquita.
Part 3 will look at the history of conservation and human interactions with the vaquita in the Sea of Cortez.
Part 4 will look at the conservation efforts being used to protect the species.

The Latest Export from the Sea of Cortez… Jumbo Squid?

2007-04-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Humboldt, squids, (Dosidicus gigas), are common within the Sea of Cortez, with an estimated ten million of these 6-food (2 meter) cephalopods living in the waters off of Santa Rosalia alone. But now it seems, these voracious predators have eyed the rest of the Eastern Pacific.
Weighing in at up to 100 pounds, (45 kilograms) with a strong parrot-like beak and hook-embedded suckers, these are no retiring calamari. Instead, Humboldt squid employ advanced pack hunting strategies and are able to communicate rapidly through conscious control of their skin chromatophores. They are considered by many to be comparable to dogs in intelligence and possess highly developed and sensitive eyes that can see in nearly complete darkness (the eyes of the related Giant Squid, Architeuthis dux, are the largest in the animal world - 20 inches in diameter).

With rapid generation times, tremendous metabolic needs, and high regional densities, these jet-propelled mollusks tend to make quite an impact on the population dynamics of any ecosystem they join. And they have now been found along the Eastern shores of the Pacific all the way from the Southern tip of South America to Alaska, although their greatest increase in numbers seems to be along the California coast.

The reasons for this shift are unclear. California has seen mysterious surges and disappearances of Humbolt squid before, most notably in the 1930’s, 1970’s and 1990’s, but the range expansion further north and south is something unexpected. Regional migrations of the squid have been noted in the past and have been linked to local food supplies, but a range expansion in both hemispheres may indicate a response to global warming.

The new abundance of squid has been a mixed bag for the coastal economies of Baja, and these effects may be reflected along the Eastern Pacific as the squid become more entrenched. A commercial squid fishery has developed in Santa Rosalia to supply the demands of Asian markets, with hundreds of thousands of tons being pulled from the waters each summer. However, more traditional catches such as Pacific hake, anchovies, and sardines are declining as the voracious squids consume them and this has California fisheries worried.

The squid have even proven a draw along Santa Rosalia and other areas of the Baja peninsula to tourists. Several dive operations now allow scuba divers the opportunity to dive with squids under the watch of experienced guides. Sport-fishermen also have reported that they enjoy fishing for the squids in the winter when most of the big game fish have departed.

Welcome!

2007-04-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome!

Welcome to the Baja - News and Views section of SeaBaja.com. In this section we will be featuring periodic updates about the current water temperatures, visibility, news for scuba divers and boaters, and best of all, animal sightings and other news about this rich and varied ecosystem. We hope that our readers will find this information helpful and entertaining. We would love to hear from you if you have any comments, announcements, or dive reports you would like to share. You may post your comments in response to any of the earlier posts, or you may email us at admin@seabaja.com and our editor will make sure to share your announcements and reports, so long as they are within the scope of this board. Please email us if you have any suggestions about what you would like to see on SeaBaja.com or if there are improvements that you would like to see.
Cheers, SeaCortez (editor)

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