–by Alma
Lots of people think that the ocean is empty except for little goldfish. We haven’t seen any of those, but we have been seeing many other types of sea creatures. Before we left, I was thinking a lot about the places we’d go, and I didn’t think as much about the wildlife we’d see. But there’s a lot of it! On 3/4/18, my half birthday, we anchored at Isla Isabel-Mexico’s Galapagos–so it seemed like an awesome time to write about sea creatures!
We have seen lots of sea mammals, which can be broken up into cetaceans and pinnipeds. Cetaceans are animals like whales and dolphins. Pinnipeds are things like seals, sea lions, and elephant seals. We have seen all of those. We have seen lots of seals and sea lions the whole way, but we only saw elephant seals at San Miguel in the Channel Islands. The beach was covered in them. The males have big inflatable noses and weigh a maximum of 4,500 pounds! We have also seen lots of dolphins.
At one point, we saw them playing under the bow (front) of the boat! There were about a dozen of them for about ten minutes! In Bahia Magdalena, we saw a mother and baby gray whale swimming together. While we were sailing, we saw a humpback whale breech six times, and then a different humpback whale breech nine times. More recently, we saw humpback whales “lobster tailing” or hitting the water with their tails. You could hear a thud a few seconds after because of the distance.
We have also seen turtles. The first day, we just saw one. Then a few days later, we saw a bunch–everywhere you looked. They looked like floating rocks. They were funny. They just sat there paddling every so often. We’ve continued to see sea turtles all along the coast of Mexico.
The thing that we have seen most variety in is sea birds. I will have a list of all of them all later. My favorites were the frigate birds with long forked tails. The males can inflate a big red balloon under their beaks. When they tap their beaks against this “balloon” it makes a vibrating drum sound. We also saw the fluffy frigate bird chicks!
Another thing that we have seen is animals in tide pools, from sea anemones that curl up when you touch them, to crabs, to clams that you dig up with your toes.
We have also seen lots of other miscellaneous sea creatures, like flying fish (one landed on our deck) and rays that jump and splash the surface. Also, we saw little jellyfish that don’t sting and a huge sunfish. Four squids landed on our deck as well! At night, we see bio-luminescent zooplankton. Bio-luminescent zooplankton are microscopic organisms that glow when the water is churned up.
As you can see, the ocean is definitely not empty! It is full of life, and we are seeing so much! Though definitely not all of it.
Birds We’ve Seen:
- Frigate birds
- Tropic birds
- Turns
- Pelicans
- Cormorants
- Guillemots
- Shear waters
- Osprey
- Brown Boobies
- Great blue herons
- Egrets
Aren’t ocean sunfish the weirdest looking things??
That’s the truth! How do they know which way is forward?
Oh the little turtle so adorable.
Dolphins- love them too,super playful -that’s the way to live I say having fun and making people smile.
Man oh man you’ve been keeping your eyes peeled to these all these beautiful creatures,how lucky we are that they all exist.
I hope you are doing some drawing/painting -love to see that.
Jocelyn
Hi jocelyn,
Thank you. We have been seeing lots of sea creatures, and also, we have been drawing a lot. My mom has been giving me and Arlo art lessons. And that’s been going well.
Thanks!
From Alma
I have great memories of spending many dark nights at sea watching the Bio-luminescence off the fantails of ships. What a treat for you, I’m envious.
Hi
The Dark Nights At Sea are amazing aren’t they! Lots of stars. And bioluminescence. Thanks!
From Alma
Hi distance neighbors,
Enjoy all your messages. Stay safe and enjoy your adventure.
Hi Celeste,
Thank you so much! And we will.
From Alma
I love all the descriptions and pictures of sea life. It makes me want to be there!
The updates are great!
Wow Alma! What a lot of critters you’ve been meeting – makes me want to be there too! I’ve never seen bioluminescence and I’ve always wanted to…. I think I’d really like to hear the frigate bird drum his balloon that’s freaky cool.
Have you seen lots of lightning on the open sea? Must be amazing!!! The other day I saw a rainbow while the sun was shining and the rain was showering steadily… I could see the end of the rainbow because it was reflecting off the raindrops…. or something like that. I decided that yes I had the pot of gold because it was just so priceless a thing to experience! (is that corny?)
ALL or love to you guys — Arlo your description of life on the cabin brings it all to life — I’m glad you’re comfy in your bed! xxxxxx Carol and Jesse (your cuzzins)
Another gift from you guys. What fun to read it.
Alma,
I am so glad you are enjoying yourself and writing so well!!! I look forward to all your updates and hope nothing but a safe and rewarding voyage.
Best,
Dan
From Leonie:
Hello, Caitlin, Alma, Arlo and Jason! How have you been doing ? Moby is doing great! No worries! ( I did not know he lost so much hair !) 😀 Anyways, you guys are so lucky that you saw so much wild life! I wish I could see some one day! I never saw a flying fish before !!! (so cool !) I miss you guys. Moby loves the dog park ! My friend has a husky named Freya (not sure how to spell it) , so one day, we saw her mother with Freya, so Moby and Freya played together, it was so funny !!!
Hi Leonie,
How are you doing? We miss Moby a lot. Glad to know that you are letting him run off leash at the dog park. I can picture him playing with a husky, sounds fun. Love to hear about Moby and how he’s doing. Thanks!
From Alma
He does shed a lot doesn’t he!
Everything Sounds lovely! Never saw a flying fish so that I was a treat! Arlo you could be a food critic too! This adventure has surely brought out so many wonderful attributes I bet you never knew you possessed! Sail on my dear friends and hope Jason continues to be on the mend!