San Ignacio Lagoon, Coastal lagoon and whale sanctuary in Baja California Sur, Mexico
San Ignacio Lagoon is a coastal lagoon on the Pacific side of Baja California Sur, Mexico, recognized as a Ramsar wetland and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It opens toward the ocean through a narrow mouth and fans out into a wide, shallow body of water surrounded by desert.
In the 19th century, whalers from Europe and North America hunted gray whales here so heavily that the species came close to disappearing entirely. After commercial whaling ended, the population gradually recovered, and the lagoon was given protected status in the 20th century.
The local fishing families who live near the lagoon now guide visitors out to see the whales, often in small open boats called pangas. Gray whales in this area are known to approach boats on their own, which makes the experience unlike whale watching anywhere else.
The best time to visit is between December and April, when gray whales come to give birth and nurse their calves in the lagoon. Boats depart from small piers nearby, and layered, windproof clothing is a good idea since conditions on the water can be cool even on sunny days.
Gray whales here sometimes push their heads out of the water near boats and allow people to touch them, a behavior that researchers first documented in the 1970s. No one fully understands why the whales do this, since they were intensively hunted in the same waters just a century before.
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