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travel narrative by sam libby

Saturday, March 4, 2017 - post date

The WHALES

THE WHALES
"...But far beneath this wondrous world upon the surface, another and
still stranger world met our eyes as we gazed over the side. For,
suspended in those watery vaults, floated the forms of the nursing
mothers of the whales, and those that by their enormous girth seemed
shortly to become mothers. The lake, as I have hinted, was to a
considerable depth exceedingly transparent; and as human infants while
suckling will calmly and fixedly gaze away from the breast, as if
leading two different lives at the time; and while yet drawing mortal
nourishment, be still spiritually feasting upon some unearthly
reminiscence;- even so did the young of these whales seem looking up
towards us, but not at us, as if we were but a bit of Gulfweed in
their new-born sight. Floating on their sides, the mothers also seemed
quietly eyeing us. One of these little infants, that from certain
queer tokens seemed hardly a day old, might have measured some
fourteen feet in length, and some six feet in girth. He was a little
frisky; though as yet his body seemed scarce yet recovered from that
irksome position it had so lately occupied in the maternal reticule;
where, tail to head, and all ready for the final spring, the unborn
whale lies bent like a Tartar's bow. The delicate side-fins, and the
palms of his flukes, still freshly retained the plaited crumpled
appearance of a baby's ears newly arrived from foreign parts...
some of the subtlest secrets of the seas seemed divulged to us in this
enchanted pond. We saw young Leviathan amours in the deep...
...And thus, though surrounded by circle upon circle of consternations
and affrights, did these inscrutable creatures at the centre freely
and fearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments; yes, serenely
revelled in dalliance and delight. But even so, amid the tornadoed
Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in
mute calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round
me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal
mildness of joy."
Moby Dick - The Whale
Herman Melville
In the beginning there were tens of thousands of gray whales, and they
were in all the world’s oceans. And yet, even before the industrial
whaling of the 1800’s, humans had exterminated the gray whales in the
Mediterranean and Atlantic Oceans.
And when the big industrial whaling of the 1800’s began the oil
rendered from the gray whale was considered far inferior than the oil
of the right whales and sperm whales. But when these more commercially
desirable species became scarce the large scale whaling of the grey
whales began.
By the mid 1800’s the last significant population of grey whales
migrated from their feeding on krill waters of the Arctic Ocean and
Bering Sea to their mating and calving waters in four lagoons (Laguna
Ojo de Liebre, Laguna San Ignacio, Puerto Lopez Mateos, Puerto San
Carlos) in the Baja California Peninsula.
In the winter of 1855-56 several United States whaling ships including
the ‘Leonore’ , captained by Charles Melville Scammon began the
slaughter of this last significant population of gray whales.
Scammon is credited as being the whaling ship captain who led the
first near extermination of the gray whale.
The winter of 1855-56 was the first of the winters, from 1855
through1865, that became known as the “bonanza period”.
Thousands of gray whales were killed by United States and European
Whalers. Thousands of calves were injured and died. Thousands more
were orphaned when their mothers were killed and died of starvation.
The mother’s were targeted by the whalers. They would navigate
their boats between the mother and their calves. The enraged mothers
would inevitably come close enough to be harpooned.
And yet, with time, the gray whales became better and better at
killing their hunters. More whalers were killed hunting the gray
whales than were killed in the hunt for any other whale. The
intelligence and fierceness of the gray whales’ resistance earned them
the designation “devilfish”.
Seventeen years after 'discovering' the whale nurseries Scammon wrote
"The large bays and lagoons where these animals once congregated,
brought forth and nurtured their young are nearly deserted."
By 1874 the oil that was lighting the world’s cities was no longer
whale oil. Whale oil no longer had commercial value. The hunting
pressure on the whales dramatically decreased. The gray whale
population in the Southern Baja began to rebound.
But then the whales were hunted by local people for dog food.
More people were said to be killed by the whales during this period,
then were killed during the time when whales were hunted for their
oil. By 1949 when the gray whale became protected from commercial
whaling, there were so few left, that extinction seemed inevitable.
And yet, again the gray whales rebounded.
Local fishermen avoided them because they were the “devilfish”.
And then, in February 1972, something remarkable happened.
Francisco ‘Pachico’ Mayoral, a fisherman from Laguna San Ignacio was
working in the lagoon when a large gray whale surfaced near his panga
(long wooden boat with an outboard engine). He tried to put distance
between himself and the “devilfish”. And yet the gray whale remained
close, following the panga for about an hour.
The whale seemed to be seeking human contact.
Pachico reached out and cautiously, warily caressed the whale’s face.
This became the beginning of Baja California’s economically important
whale watching/whale touching eco-tourism.
The first whale watchers/touchers saw whales with hidous harpoon scars.
About ten percent of the resurgent gray whale population in the
lagoons of the Southern Baja seek out humans, seek out human contact.
And yet, these whales give birth to babies who become adults that will
also seek out human contact. The numbers of whales seeking the human
touch is increasing the numbers of people going to Baja California to
see and touch whales is increasing.
On a recent panga boat, whaling excursion from Guerrero Negro to the
outskirts of Laguna Ojo de Liebre (also known as Scammon's Lagoon), a
proud mother pushed her new-born calf with her back to give humans in the boat a
good view of the calf and the baby’s face,. And then presented her
stomach to be caressed.
On a recent panga boat, whaling excursion into Laguna San Ignacio a
mother gently rubbed against the boat. She and her baby presented
their faces to be caressed.
And mother whales continually approached the boat with playfulness,
curiosity, intelligence as they shared their joy in their new-born
babies.
And each year reports come from all the world's oceans that the gray
whale is back.