Humpback Whales in Cabo San Lucas

Spectacular. There's no other word I can use to describe my first-time encounter with humpback whales.

Any winter visit to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula usually guarantees a sighting of these visiting ocean giants. Many come close enough to shore for resort vacationers to even catch a glimpse from the beach. Deep sea fishermen and cruise ship passengers frequently see them from their respective decks. And whale watching tour groups regularly bring tourists in close proximity. But my own up-close encounter was from aboard a Zodiac boat on a return trip from a coral reef snorkeling excursion.

The little craft's crew had given us hope that we might run into some of these whales as sightings had just started that late November week. Humpback whales range all over the globe and generally follow a pattern of feeding during the summer in polar regions while mating and birthing their young in tropical and semitropical waters like those around Cabo during the winter. Like many other whales, their species has a story of near extinction due to over-hunting and a recent recovery thanks to a global effort to stop the slaughter. But as common as they've once again become, finding one is still a thrill.

"Ballena! Ballena!" shouted our boat's guide. Another vessel was in the direction he was pointing towards shore, and sure enough that craft had stopped to witness a whale breach the water's surface. I was able to snap some pictures with my zoom lens but the whale quickly dove into the deep water. Fortunately our crew were not just versed in the coral reef life that was the subject of our morning's excursion, they knew the deeper sea and these giant winter visitors that frequent it also.

Slowing the Zodiac to trawling speed, our guide eyed the depths of the turquoise water surrounding us. "There! Two o'clock!" he motioned toward a white shape below the water. Some moments later a massive, maybe twelve foot tail showed itself in a gentle rise and descent, a waterfall of salt water streaming as it submerged. An interesting feature of the humpback whale is that it has extremely long pectoral fins that are bright white, reflecting the sun's light in clear seas and providing an easy way to track the animal when he's underwater.

But above the ocean's surface we only saw the tail portion of the whale, which might make up only one third of the creature's total length of close to fifty feet. Fortunately its distinct hump was usually visible during its partial rise out of the sea. The end of its tail is divided in two flukes or lobes, both partially colored white on their undersides like the pectoral fins that helped our guides track it. Apparently individuals can be identified by unique markings on these flukes. And interestingly the over ten feet-wide pair of tail lobes I was able to photograph showed barnacles hitching a free ride.

After fifteen minutes of following three individuals, our boat's captain decided his passengers had enough thrills for one morning and steered us safely back to our gargantuan cruise ship. Had we turned our cameras from the sea onto our own faces at that very moment we'd have seen smiles and tears of joy at our once-in-a-lifetime encounter with these thirty ton behemoths.

Was this just another late November day in the warm, teeming Sea of Cortez waters? It's hard to believe that these channels that pleasure craft and fishing boats cross regularly are shared with some of the largest animals in existence. Local fishermen and pilots must live in a perpetual state of awe.