Two years in a row now, I’ve had the blessing of making my way to this off-the-grid, dirt road accessible lagoon. For a short period of 3 months each year, from January thru March, local fishermen there and marine biologists become the access point for eco-tourists like myself, to meet the temporary yet grand residents at the laguna.
Laguna de San Ignacio and its sister lagoon “Ojo de Liebre”, slightly further North on the peninsula, are both parts of the El Vizcaino biosphere reserve, founded in 1988, to protect local wildlife species. Being the largest wildlife preserve in Mexico and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the lagoons of the El Vizcaino reserve attract a limited number of whale watching enthusiasts each year, who have the option of going out with one of only a handful of boat tours. At the Laguna de San Ignacio, the entire process is governed by permits, a 90-mins time window during which each boat is allowed to enter the restricted whale watching area, and a maximum number of sixteen whale watching boats at a time. It is a powerful experience to watch these conservation measures be executed and upheld to create an opportunity for whales and people alike to interact. On the historical front though, it is thanks to wide-spread efforts by the locals at the laguna and a coalition of Mexican and foreign environmental protection groups, that San Ignacio became the whale sanctuary that it is today. Indeed, in 1994, the Mexican government and the Japanese Mitsubishi corporation launched plans to build the world’s largest salt mining factory at the lagoon, endangering the last protected breeding and birthing ground of the Pacific gray whale. The legal victory that ensued six years later in favor of the whales’ protection, is still considered today to be one of the largest international victories to date in wildlife conservation.
So what makes these whales so special and why is this fairly small lagoon in Mexico the symbol of a much larger archetype for hope?
Looking at it from a purely biological perspective, gray whales, and as a matter of fact, any whale species, have no reason to befriend or show any kind of trust in mankind after being almost hunted to extinction in the 1900s. Despite conservation efforts being put into place to save the critically low population in the mid 1900s and the following population growth, whales are still the unfortunate recipient of wildlife vs human conflict. Between getting entangled in fishing gear, struck by boats or losing food supply to offshore drilling, whales are for the most part, negatively affected by human presence in their waters.
What is remarkable however; is that in the shallow and safe waters of the San Ignacio lagoon, not considered a feeding ground for the gray whale, who instead will migrate up to Alaska to eat, human interaction in the form of small boats becomes a form of playful entertainment. As was explained to me by Paola, the passionate marine biologist at Antonio’s EcoTours, the whales’ behavior towards humans changes completely once they have reached their feeding destination in Alaska. After mostly starving themselves during their migration journey, surviving off of the blubber they built up prior to migrating South to Mexico, the whales are solely focused on nourishment and survival once back in their Northern feeding grounds. This means that their interest in human contact is drastically diminished, if not non-existent, by the time they are back in Alaska. In other words, one hypothesis is that the lack of abundant food supply and the fact that the Laguna de San Ignacio is unencumbered by fishing vessels during whale season, makes the whales become more interested in the people who are solely there to witness them.
It is important to note here that part of the whale conservation and protection obligations for whale watching boats on the lagoon is to never “chase” a whale, meaning it is entirely up to each individual whale to decide whether it wants to approach a boat. From there on, the possibilities are endless… Some whale mothers allow their babies to approach a boat on their own, receiving the clamor and outstretched splashing hands of whale watchers. Other moms prefer to have the attention to themselves or on the contrary, will behave in a way that introduces the two or three months old calf with pride. It’s during those interactions, where these 30-40 feet long majestic marine mammals dance and play with the 8-passenger single engine boats, that the human-wildlife narrative becomes written anew. All of the sudden, horizons of new possibilities, of hope for a better and more sustainable future appear.
As an ecotherapist, my entire work and mission is to heal the disconnection between nature and all her inhabitants, including mankind. To help people remember that not only are we not separate from nature but that to survive and thrive as a population and human species, we entirely depend on a very fragile equilibrium between our actions and their consequences on the environment. That we are in fact, one with the natural world, instead of seeing nature as a resource to profit from. And while this may sound all optimistic and inaccessible in the capitalistic, growth-driven society that prevails in our world today, the point is that if the gray whales can forgive us and seek connection with their #1 threat, so too, can we learn to adapt to and honor the survival needs of other species, globally.
Whether you believe or not that animals are capable of nurturing feelings, also known as “sentient beings”, there is something incredibly attractive to the human heart and conscience, in being a witness to life outside of ourselves, beyond our own species. People from all walks of life, from young children to retirees, gather at the lagoon each year for a chance to interact with the gray whales; and I can assure you that each and everyone of them is mesmerized and transformed by the experience. These migratory whales are an archetype for hope, for a future where we begin to acknowledge that other species have a right not only to exist but to thrive too, and that it is our duty to remember and restore this equilibrium we have long lost sight of, in Westernized society. I do want to acknowledge here that I am writing from a Euro-centric perspective, given my own heritage, and that there are many of indigenous cultures across the world, who have an entirely different relationship with nature and wildlife, built on long-standing religious and spiritual traditions of reverence across species.
If there was one thing to take away from the majestic and friendly gray whales, it is that connection across species, into what we call the “more than human” world, is absolutely possible, and also represents our hope of restoring what we have long lost sight of. An honoring of the reality that we are not separate from nature, nor her superior, but that to feel truly at peace, we must look beyond our own ego and capitalist aims, in order to restore a balanced relationship with the natural world.
