Baja Wildlife Trip Report 2026
- Week 1 -

La Ventana, Mexico
May 2 - 9, 2026

May 3, 2026. Day one.

We are heading out.

Nice weather this morning. Low wind, bright sun, calm seas.

We received reports of sperm whales moving north, so we headed out to investigate. When we arrived, there were already several boats in the area, all trying to get a look at the whales.

We decided to hang back for a bit and watch their behavior from the boat, hoping for some topside shots.

There were a few whales scattered across the area. Feeding behavior.

The whales would surface, spend a few minutes deep breathing, then disappear back into the depths to feed.

We had a couple surface fairly close to the boat, and they were huge.

Massive male sperm whales.

At least 60 feet long. Absolute monsters.

After spending some time with them, we left the mob of pangas behind and continued searching to see what else Baja had in store for us.

12:00 PM. Quiet morning so far.

2:45 PM.  We pushed south today… deep south.

We had heard rumors of another sperm whale pod farther down the coast.

When we arrived, our buddy Cano was out fishing. He pointed us toward the last place he had seen a whale surface.

Less than ten minutes later, a sperm whale appeared.

Another big male.

Not quite as massive as the whales we saw this morning, but still an impressive animal.

This whale surfaced and swam directly toward our boat, passing right alongside us before slipping back beneath the surface.

Cheers erupted. The whale passed so close.

We waited for it to resurface, but it never came back up.

After a while, we turned around and began the long run home.

Day one was quiet, not a lot of wildlife around, but it was a good first day.

It’s always a good sign when you start a trip with sperm whales.

We also spent a little time with a scattered pod of bottlenose dolphins that followed the boat for a while. We didn’t try to get in with them, but it was still nice to see them riding alongside us.

This season we are searching for the big four:

The biggest fish… whale shark.
The biggest whale… blue whale.
The biggest dolphin… orca.
And the biggest toothed whale…  the sperm whale.

One down.

Three to go.

Our adventures in Baja begins.

May 4, 2026. Day Two.

May the Fourth be with you! For all my fellow Star Wars nerds out there.

We headed out this morning in nice conditions. A little cloudy and overcast at first, but the sun burned through pretty quickly.

We stayed inside the bay searching for mobula rays. The water here right now is unbelievably warm and crystal clear. It’s crazy how warm it is.

We found and swam with a small group of mobulas, maybe 30 - 40 individuals. Nothing huge, but still nice getting our friends in the water with them. Before long, a bunch of other boats showed up wanting to jump in as well, so we left and began our search for the bigger stuff.

We pushed south today. The winds are kinder to us if we do.

At one point we spotted what we thought was a dolphin on the surface. It turned out to be a pygmy sperm whale.

We launched the drone immediately hoping to get a better look, but by the time it was in the air, the whale was gone.

Pygmy sperm whales are so rare and so shy.

Honestly, the back of one surfacing briefly is about all most people will ever get to see.

The water out here is insanely blue right now. Just beautiful.

Later, we stopped at one of the buoys local fishermen deploy offshore. Over time, these buoys attract life, so they are always worth checking. There were quite a few baitfish underneath and one mahi mahi hanging around the structure.

Unfortunately, the water right now also has a ton of tiny Portuguese man o’ wars drifting around. Everyone is getting stung by these nasty little jellyfish.

The sting isn’t terrible. Kind of feels like a hot sauce burn. It’s short lived, but you definitely know when you’ve been hit. The real problem is their tentacles are so small and transparent you can barely see them.

One of the downsides of dealing with extremely warm water this season.

1:00 PM.

We continued searching for wildlife. We stayed in contact with all our local friends out here who share sightings with us, but no one had seen much of anything today.

Sadly, that happens sometimes.

All part of paying your dues when searching for wildlife.

Later in the afternoon, while slowly motoring near the coastline heading back toward port, we ran into a nervous humpback mother and her small calf.

The calf was happily playing on the surface, slapping around and rolling.

The mother wanted absolutely nothing to do with us.

The moment we arrived she picked up speed and moved off.

We watched them briefly and then left them alone. Mom was clearly nervous, and with this area being an active hunting ground for orcas and pilot whales… I get it.

The baby was small.

We eventually left them and headed back into the bay hoping to find another group of mobulas, but there wasn’t much around. Just a few scattered groups here and there.

Tomorrow…

Tomorrow is going to be our day.

May 5, 2026. Day Three.

We left port this morning and headed north.

It was chilly early, but shaping up to be a beautiful day.

The winds are supposed to get stronger up north later, so we wanted to get out there early and have a look around before eventually heading south.

There had been reports of pilot whales yesterday, but they were much farther north, closer to La Paz and way too far for us to reach at the time.

So today we went looking.

The pilot whales were eventually found… well, a couple of them anyway. The larger pod still hasn’t been relocated.

The challenge was that word had gotten out, and there were already a few of boats around them. We didn’t want to add to the chaos.

So we waited, and watched.

One by one, the boats slowly peeled away.

Eventually it was down to only a couple of us left, and we decided to try a jump.

What we were really paying attention to was the whales’ behavior.

They weren’t speeding up. They weren’t trying to avoid the boats.

They were moving slowly and casually, completely relaxed.

Definitely not in a hurry to be anywhere.

We found a good window and slipped in.

Finally.

The pilot whales passed by us ever so slowly.

On the second jump, the larger male came right alongside me.

I snapped shot after shot as the whale moved silently past me.

Such a cool animal.

We truly enjoyed our short time with them.

After a few encounters, we decided to leave them alone and head back toward port. The winds were starting to build, and honestly, the encounters we got were already so good there was no need to keep pushing.

We went home happy.

Leaving the area with thoughts of bigger and blacker predators still on our minds.

May 6, 2026. Day four.

It’s a lumpy morning in the bay.

The winds are already up and forecasted to get worse as the day progresses.

The day begins.

We found a pod of bottlenose dolphins inside the bay and tried a jump, but they weren’t interested in hanging around, so we left them alone.

The jellies in the bay got Corey pretty good this morning.

Damn those things.

Thankfully, yesterday where the pilot whales were, there were no Portuguese man o’ wars around, so no burns.

We actually saved the burns for dinner last night instead when they brought out a plate of habanero peppers and our friends decided to experiment with just how hot they really were.

Today the winds were pushing water pretty hard, but we decided to head south anyway and check one of the offshore buoys to see if it was holding any life.

It’s about five miles out, so we knew the swells were probably going to toss us around a bit.

But we didn’t have much else going on, so we figured we’d give it a try.

We pushed south into a lumpy, messy sea.

Along the way we found some tuna feeding on flying fish and attempted a jump.

Again… the jellies were an issue.

Corey got stung pretty badly this time, again. Thankfully it faded after a bit, but those little things definitely pack a punch.

Nasty suckers.

Eventually we decided to call it and head in early. The swells were just too rough to keep comfortably searching offshore.

So we finished the day at Puffer Cove, spending some time with the little cuties.

The puffers are getting braver and braver every season.

A lot more people are doing this activity now.

The fishermen created this place, they come to this bay to clean their catch and dump extra sardines off their boats.

I saw a video some one posted of a lot of puffers here so I wanted to try it. The puffer dive really took off after I posted a super cute image of one, and since then this area has kind of taken on a life of its own.

May 7, 2026. Day Five.

We are up north today, and honestly… it kind of sucks out here.

We made the slow run over to La Reina, hoping to get in with the sea lions, but the swells were crashing hard against the island. The surge was not only turning the water cloudy, but also making conditions pretty unsafe.

We decided to try a quick jump anyway to see what it looked like before making a decision.

We spent a little time with the sea lions. They were not as interested today as they normally are.

There were a lot of cormorants sitting on the rocks and one diving repeatedly nearby. I jumped in hoping to snap a few images underwater, but never managed to spot it beneath the surface.

Down on the reef, I started searching for octopus.

There are almost always octopus hiding somewhere around this reef, and it didn’t take long before I found one slithering along the reef.

At first it was skittish, hiding itself deep inside the reef whenever I dove down to photograph it.

But after a few minutes, it seemed to realize I wasn’t a threat and simply ignored me, continuing its slow crawl across the reef while fighting the strong current.

Man… I love octopuses.

The giant Pacific octopus is still very high on my list of must-see animals. (Hint-hint… Future trip in the works guys.)

Eventually we left La Reina and continued heading north.

Along the way we spotted several boats gathered together and motored over to see what was happening.

A super pod of common dolphins was moving through the area.

These dolphins usually aren’t very interactive in the water, so we didn’t try to jump in with them. Instead, we stayed topside and enjoyed watching them from the boat.

And honestly… seeing them out here is a really good sign.

Common dolphins are one of the main food sources for the orcas in this area.

Which means one thing.

The orcas should not be far behind.

May 8, 2026. Day six. Our final day.

The seas have been much kinder to us today. A real pleasure to be out here… as long as we stay south.

If we push north, we’re going to get wet.

We headed north this morning as far as we dared before eventually turning around and beginning the long move south.

Along the way we ran into a pod of bottlenose dolphins and managed to get some water time with them.

Always nice spending time with dolphins in that deep blue water.

We only managed a couple of jumps before the dolphins lost interest, so we left them alone and continued our search.

The search continues…

We spent most of the day looking for wildlife, but unfortunately didn’t turn up much of anything. There is a nasty red tide moving through La Ventana right now, and it definitely seems to be affecting things.

So we decided to finish the trip at Punta Sur with the sea lions.

The visibility was actually really nice, and we had several playful and interactive sea lions around us in the water.

At one point two large males squared off against each other in a standoff that was a lot of fun to watch and photograph.

A good way to end the day.

And a good way to end the trip.

Thank you to my friends who joined us out there. It was such a fun week. Miss you all already.