04/21/2022

Earth Day in the Company of the World's Largest Species

The story of one man's encounter with blue whales

Sitting, floating, waiting … almost meditating. It is the anticipation that I have come to love in my quest to photograph nature. Waiting for the largest animal in existence on this planet to take its next breath is perhaps the greatest anticipation of all. Like the sound of a wave exploding against a rugged shoreline, a blue whale (Balaenoptera Musculus) exhales at the surface.

Out on the water, our guide, Michael Fischbach of Great Whale Conservancy, works tirelessly to catalog each whale in an effort to support growing regional identification data and protection programs. He traces the towering spume of mist from across the horizon and off we race, eager to capture the beauty and grace of the majestic Blue Whale.

Aboard the SeaLegacy 1, every day is Earth Day. And, most days begin much like today - up on deck before the sunrise, listening in the dark for any indication that a whale is near. For 12 days, we tracked the feeding and unique behavior of blue whales off the east coast of Baja, Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez. Working alongside Fischbach, his daughter Delphi, and their team supported by SeaLegacy, we spent dawn to dark patrolling the Gulf of California in an effort to help better understand the movements of these mammoth creatures.

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from Born Wild.