La Ventana Stories

It is that time of the year again! Every spring we have a very special gathering in our front yard: thousands of rays aggregate in a breathtaking spectacle. They are Munk´s pygmy devil ray or Mobula munkiana, locals know them as “tortillas”, because the sound they make when jumping out of the water, reminds the clapping of hands produced while making tortillas.

They are cartilaginous fish, related to sharks, and they inhabit the Eastern Pacific Ocean, from Mexico to Peru. They reach a maximum disc length of 4.2 ft (130 cm), with an average of 3 ft (100cm). They are filter feeders, and they follow the zooplankton blooms, moving around the Baja peninsula with them. This time of the year, they can be seen in our area, when the conditions are ideal for feeding and reproduction. All around the bay, they can be seen swimming gracefully in the water, hundreds of them together, moving their fins like birds flying, it is truly nature´s wonder. But they can also be seen out of the water: moving their wings and gaining enough momentum to propel themselves in acrobatic jumps, sometimes many of them at the same time. Nobody knows exactly why they jump, there are different theories, but I like thinking it is just pure joy.

For years they were fished till they were put in severe danger of extinction. They are very sensitive to overfishing because they have slow reproductive strategies, like many other cartilaginous fishes. They are aplacental viviparous and they only give birth to one pup, after a gestation period of 12 months, so it takes them a long time to recover after the removal of many individuals. Now they are protected, and we have seen increasing numbers, but they are still listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. One of their main threats is bycatch from coastal fishing nets. Swimming with them is a great attraction for ecotourism, making them way more valuable alive than dead and favoring conservation efforts.

Common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) are the most common cetacean in the world, they are found worldwide, through tropical and temperate waters, nearshore and offshore. Despite their name, they are not the dolphin we have in mind as the “classic dolphin”, being this one the bottlenose dolphin, popular in media or aquariums. Common dolphins have a well-defined long beak, a black-grey back, and a dark patch around the eye, they can be easily recognized by a pale to tan hourglass or crisscross pattern on the sides of their bodies.

They form large groups for hunting and socializing, it is not rare to see hundreds of them in a group. Sometimes, they can form bigger groups called “super pods”, gathering thousands of individuals. They are very playful when they swim in groups and enjoy breaching and playing with waves, they are known for swimming along with boats, either racing at the front or playing at the wake that is formed behind.

Because of their wide distribution, they have a varied diet, feeding on schooling fish like anchovies and sardines, among other species, and enjoy eating squid too. They have been recorded to make dives up to 200 meters (660 ft) deep.

Recently we had big groups of common dolphins in the bay, and what is even better: there were many babies with them! Given that newborn calves measure 7 to 100cm (2.3 to 3.3 ft) I would say these babies were recently born, I had never seen such

Today I want to introduce you to one of the most fascinating marine creatures. These beautiful and delicate shells you see, didn´t belong to a snail or a crab, they belonged to an octopus, a female octopus to be more precise.

Paper nautiluses or argonauts are a group of pelagic octopuses. Unlike their ground dwelling cousins, they spend their lives drifting in the water column, so they evolved in clever ways to adapt to this environment. Argonauts exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism in size, lifespan and features. Females can grow up to 30 cm (12 inches), with their shells while males rarely reach more than 2cm (0.8 inches). Males only mate once in their short lifetime, but females can reproduce many times during their lives. Females have been known since ancient times, because of a unique characteristic, while males were only described in the late 19th century.

The most particular feature of these animals belongs to females too: they have two special tentacles that secrete calcite. After mating, they start producing a delicate papery shell, lay their eggs inside it and get cozy themselves. They capture air at the surface and then seal it inside the shell, using it for buoyancy control, like a hot air balloon. They can control the size of the air bubble to keep their position in the water column. This way they travel, following the current accompanied by their eggs without expending energy.

A paper nautilus’ shell is a rare finding, if you are lucky to find one, treat it carefully, it’s a little and delicate treasure, a part of a creature with a unique life story!

Just a few days ago we had an incredible encounter: while out on a boat, we found not one, but two blue whales in our bay. We were observing a humpback whale when suddenly, we heard a very loud blow close to our boat: there it was, a gigantic creature just at our doorstep. The sound of a blue whale´s breath is incredible, it is so loud it gets inside your chest, no doubt a powerful feeling to hear one close by.

Blue whales are the largest animal known to have ever existed. They can live up to 80 or 90 years and reach a maximum length of 30m (98 ft) and weigh up to 200 tons. Their heart is the size of a car! They perform long migrations, traveling from their summer feeding grounds in the polar regions to their winter breeding grounds in waters near the tropics.

Despite their size, much of their life story remains a mystery. They are generally solitary or gather in small groups, mothers with their calves being the most common aggregation. They migrate during winter and spring to the Gulf of California for feeding and breeding. In Loreto area, females with their newborn calves have been observed.

They are baleen whales, meaning they do not have teeth, but baleen plates that they use to filter their food. Their diet consists almost exclusively of krill. Their stomach can hold one ton of krill and they need to eat about 4 tons of krill each day.

Blue whales produce some of the loudest and lowest frequency vocalizations in the animal kingdom, and their inner ears appear well adapted for detecting low-frequency sounds. They emit a series of pulses, groans, and moans, and it’s thought that, in good conditions, blue whales can hear each other up to 1000 miles away. Scientists think they use these vocalizations not only to communicate but, along with their excellent hearing, to sonar-navigate the lightless ocean depths.

Like other whale species, they were abundant in nearly all the Earth´s oceans, until the 19th century, when they were hunted almost to extinction. The International Whaling Commission banned blue whale hunting in 1966, but they’ve managed only a minor recovery since then. Today they are listed as Endangered and face man-made threats such as ship strikes, pollution, ocean noise, and climate change.

This time of the year we receive one of the most popular visitors of the Baja Peninsula: gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus). Every winter, gray whales embark on an epic trip from their summer home in Alaska´s waters to the warm waters of Baja California´s lagoons. This is one of the greatest migrations in the animal kingdom, a round-trip of around 20000 km (12000 miles), an epic journey full of dangers. This week I would like to share their story, because it is one of hope, one that shows us that if we act soon, there is still time for life to bounce back.

During the mid-1800s and early 1900s, gray whales were slaughtered for their meat and fat to almost extinction. In their nursing lagoons of Baja California, they were easy prey. Fishermen called them “devil fish” because when losing their calves to whalers, the mothers would destroy their boats. There was an open war between whales and humans, one that whales were losing.

Finally, gray whales became internationally protected in 1947. After almost disappearing, the population rebounded, going back to almost pre-whaling numbers.

The war was over and, after decades, the whales changed the way they saw humans: in San Ignacio, gray whales started approaching fishermen’s boats, not to attack them, but to greet them. The whales seemed to want people around and even allowed fishermen to pet them. Such a special interaction brought ecotourism to the fishing villages, which are visited every year by people from all over the world.

Today, gray whales and people are intimately connected, they are part of the local culture and are highly regarded, being one of the most iconic species in Baja California.

Whale shark (Rhincodon typus), 0% whale and 100% shark, whale sharks are the largest fish in the world, reaching up to 18m (60 ft). Primarily pelagic, they can be found in both coastal and oceanic habitats. They lack proper teeth having only tiny ones and filter pads in their gills. They are filter feeders, one of only three known filter-feeding shark species (along with the basking shark and the megamouth shark). They feed on plankton and other small animals like baitfish and squid. They swallow water either by opening their mouth and swimming forward or by active suction, opening and closing their mouth. The water is then expelled through the gills, which filter the food. A juvenile whale shark is estimated to eat 21 kg (46 pounds) of plankton per day.

Whale sharks are found in tropical areas around the world, including the warm waters of Mexico from the Sea of Cortez to the eastern Mexican coast in the Caribbean. They are generally solitary animals but sometimes gather in large groups to take advantage of good feeding opportunities.

They are gray or gray-blue with a beautiful pattern of white lines and dots. This pattern is unique to each individual, like a fingerprint, and can be used for identification. In La Paz area they gather from November to April to feed in the plankton-rich waters of the Bay. Despite their enormous size, we still don´t know much about these animals, and their growth, longevity, and reproduction are poorly understood. They are classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.