By Isla Quinn
Every winter, a whale swims about as far as a mammal can swim to give birth in a warm, shallow lagoon. Then it turns around and swims back. The lagoons are in Baja California Sur. This piece looks at what UNESCO, NOAA and three encyclopedias say about them, and where the numbers disagree.
Two lagoons, one listing
UNESCO inscribed the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino in 1993 under a single natural criterion, (x). It is a serial property with two coastal lagoons, Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio, plus the wetlands, marshes, dunes, desert and mangroves around them. UNESCO calls the lagoons the world’s “most important place for the reproduction of the once endangered Eastern subpopulation” of North Pacific gray whales.
The area is listed two ways. UNESCO’s metadata says 369,631 hectares; its own synthesis says 370,950. Wikipedia’s article on the surrounding biosphere reserve gives 55,555 square kilometers in the infobox and “over 24,930” in the text, and does not reconcile them. We report all of it.
Ojo de Liebre
Wikipedia gives the name’s meaning as “hare eye” and says the lagoon is also called Scammon’s Lagoon. It lies near Guerrero Negro, is about 9 kilometers wide and 4 kilometers long, and is 5 to 12 meters deep. The same article says the lagoon holds the largest commercial saltworks in the world, with concentration ponds covering 33,000 hectares. UNESCO lists “large-scale salt extraction at Ojo de Liebre” among the threats to the site. Two quite different things share one shoreline.
San Ignacio
Wikipedia places this lagoon 59 kilometers from the town of San Ignacio and Highway 1. It says the upper lagoon is the birthing area, and that fewer than 100 residents depend on fishing and whale-watching income. Both lagoons were designated Ramsar wetlands on 2 February 2004, according to Wikipedia.
The season
The sources give slightly different calendars.
- NOAA, the US ocean agency: calves are born from early January to mid-February, during the migration or in the shallow lagoons.
- Wikipedia’s gray whale article: whales reach the lagoons from late December to early January; most arrive between mid-February and mid-March; most calves are born in a six-week window in mid-January; most leave from late March to mid-April.
Those fit together loosely and not exactly. We do not merge them. Our reading: the season is a window that moves a little each year, and a visitor should treat the months above as a range, not a promise.
How big, how far
- Length: NOAA says 42 to 49 feet. Wikipedia says 11 to 15.2 meters (36 to 50 feet). Britannica, an encyclopedia, says a maximum of about 15 meters (49 feet).
- Weight: NOAA says about 90,000 pounds. Wikipedia says mature whales can reach 40 to 45 tonnes, with 15 to 33 tonnes typical.
- Calves: Wikipedia says newborns are 4.6 to 4.9 meters long and weigh 500 to 600 kilograms, and that mothers nurse for about seven months.
- Round trip: NOAA says about 10,000 miles, and sometimes upwards of 14,000. Wikipedia says 16,000 to 22,000 kilometers (9,900 to 13,700 miles), believed to be the longest annual migration of any mammal.
Wikipedia says the southbound leg takes two to three months. Summer feeding grounds are in the Chukchi, Beaufort and northwestern Bering Seas, according to UNESCO.
What they eat, and what grows on them
NOAA says gray whales are mostly bottom feeders, eating small bottom-dwelling invertebrates such as amphipods, and filtering them through 130 to 180 baleen plates on each side of the upper jaw. Britannica describes short, yellow baleen with coarse bristles. It also says the whale carries so many external parasites that it can look like a barnacle-encrusted rock.
Close enough to touch
UNESCO lists “excessive whale-watching” among the pressures on the sanctuary.
A short, hard history
Protection followed. Wikipedia lists US protection in 1936 and International Whaling Commission protection in 1949. NOAA says the eastern North Pacific stock was removed from the US endangered species list in 1994 after recovering. Britannica says the same year for the US delisting.
The count today
NOAA’s page gives no number for the eastern population and points to its stock assessments. NOAA says the western population is far smaller, fewer than 300 individuals.
What we left out
Tour operators, boat rules for named lagoons, road conditions, and anything on the best week to go. None of that is in our sources.
Quick answers
When are gray whales in Baja? NOAA says calves are born from early January to mid-February. Wikipedia says most whales arrive between mid-February and mid-March and leave from late March to mid-April.
How far do gray whales migrate? NOAA says about 10,000 miles round trip. Wikipedia says 16,000 to 22,000 kilometers, the longest annual migration of any mammal.
Which lagoons are in the sanctuary? UNESCO lists Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio, inscribed in 1993 as the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino.
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