Humpback Whales (I) - Cabo San Lucas

On Thursday, December 2, 2010, The Sapphire Princess cruise ship anchored offshore of Cabo San Lucas, and eager folks were brought onshore to join various excursions for the day. I joined the "El Arco & Coastal Cruise" two-hour catamaran cruise around Cabo San Lucas.

We received reports of three humpback whales being sighted not far away, to the southwest (a mild surprise, since it was a bit early for the humpback season). Our boat (Boat 2) joined another (Boat 1) in attending the whales.

Upon returning to the Sapphire Princess, we heard reports that a number of other folks on a snorkeling excursion had also seen three humpback whales. It's still a little unclear to me whether these were the same three humpback whales (likely, but I thought the snorkelers were busy to the east, not the west). Nevertheless, one of the snorkelers (Melissa from B.C. Canada) showed me awesome video she took of her much-closer encounter (which also showed a boat in the distance - perhaps Boat 2?). I hope to locate that video soon.

My two videos are inferior to Melissa's (because we were a bit far away and looking into the sun glint), but for the record, here is video 1.

Location is approximately 22 degrees, 51.3 minutes latitude; 109 degrees, 56.5 minutes longitude.

Interestingly, on 10/17/2011, a copyright challenge was made to this video. Apparently SOMEONE noticed (I certainly hadn't) that the boat operators were playing the Gipsy Kings' music in the background. That music is copyrighted! So, now YouTube bans playing this video in Germany. Which is just weird. On 10/17, only 75 views had ever been registered. I didn't even remember about the music. So, who did? And why was it important enough to report?

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Humpback Whales
• Cabo San Lucas
• Sapphire Princess