Next, all interested in the underwater world boarded a bus headed north of Cabo San Lucas where, after a short walk, we were on a beach and ready to experience a refreshing dip in the waters of the Gulf of California. One by one snorkelers, staff members, and our Undersea Specialist entered the water in hopes of a quiet moment in an undersea world. But, what was that sound? As several of us lifted our heads to speak to each other, we asked, "did you hear that strange noise?" We were in the presence of humpback whales, with a very unique experience of hearing the whales long before seeing them a few hundred yards off the beach! Never before had that undersea auditory world made such an astounding impression.
As snorkelers swam at the surface, Undersea Specialist Michele was below, filming our newfound undersea world. Could she hear the whales as we were on the surface? Would she be able to record those long and plaintive notes sung by the whales? By this evening we would know! Soon, all snorkelers and divers were out of the sea and back on our small bus heading into Cabo filling the bus with our stories of whale sounds.
With everyone back on board, the Sea Lion left Cabo San Lucas to make her way toward Gorda Banks. We hoped to continue our humpback whale experience by visiting an area of well-known humpback activity. As our vessel moved north, the skies turned silver with a slight covering of clouds pushed into our area by a steady wind called the El Norte.
Our marine mammal experts, Steve Zeff and Larry Hobbs, soon sighted humpback whales off the bow. As the Sea Lion cruised into increasing chop, Larry and Steve kept a vigil on the bow, commenting about their own personal experiences with humpbacks around the world. The El Norte wind continued to grow slowly in force, so the officers and staff of the Sea Lion decided to move our vessel in toward shore. Immediately more groups of humpback whales were sighted and slowly the ship maneuvered in shallow waters for closer looks at several cow-calf pairs enjoying some playful antics with each other.
The natural history staff quickly decided to use a hydrophone to try and capture the songs of these humpback whales. The hydrophone was dropped over the bow of the ship in about forty feet of water. In this area with newborn whales, however, we picked up no singing. A short while later at our Evening Recap, we learned that our Undersea Specialist had recorded the song we had heard while snorkeling. We listened to a segment of this haunting mysterious vocalization and pondered the songs of the humpback's watery world.
