What are we most excited about right now? Well there is so much, but at the top of the list is the start of the Mexico Sardine Run in less than a month. This can be a freakin amazing experience. Check out the Bryde whale in the following video, barrelling up from behind an unknowing snorkeller, gulping its way through a school of terrified sardines.
We feel sad for the sardines, hunted by countless predators, but it is the way of Mother Ocean. Every year, from September to February, the sardines school offshore from the beautiful sand dunes of Magdalena Bay. BajaEx has always been the pioneer, and the sardine run is no different. Our first trips were over 30 years ago! We work exclusively with highly experienced local panga captains, ex-fishermen who know the area like the back of their hand. In true eco-tourism ethos, we share revenue from the trips with the local community.
NEW for 2024, Every morning, we will be starting engines before sunrise on your liveaboard yacht—your home-away-from-home at sea—lifting anchor and heading out to get in the water with the bait balls as early as possible. Our spotter aircraft helps us track the bait balls, so by the time the shore-based pangas arrive, you might have already been in the water for 4 hours having the action all to ourselves. Afterwards, it’s back to your liveaboard for air con, a nice shower, drinks, and brunch, before heading back out again mid-afternoon for more bait ball adrenaline when the day boats return to shore.
See what past guests have said:
Today was our last day of excursion diving with Nautilus at Magdalena Bay, Mother Nature definitely saved the best for last! We made multiple jumps from the boat into open ocean not knowing what we´d find, and what we found at one point left me absolutely speechless. The first dive we found ourselves alone with a solitary school of curious Mahi. Little did we know it would just be the opening act. Our second jump found us again with a solitary school of Mahi but this school was triple the size, must have been at least 80 adults all searching for Sardines. On our next jump we were joined by three to five other boats, multiple divers, and a flock of Frigates above boiling water full of barking sea lions. Once below the surface we were able to see Marlin, Sea Lions, and Mahi all in a coordinated fury feeding on Sardines! The carnage lasted for what seemed like an eternity and just as suddenly the animals quickly moved on leaving the divers alone and bobbing in the sea waiting to be scooped up by the local Panga Captains.
By far the best day of our trip, so glad we chose to go out just one last time. Mother Nature definitely did not disappoint!
– Patrick
The Real Thing
For years, I have read about these masses of silvery, squirming life, these so-called “bait balls” – schools of sardines pushed to the surface from the bottom of the sea by the larger predators. Whales and dolphins do the pushing, sometimes marlins and others. Reading about this phenomenon, looking at images captured by others doesn’t compare to experiencing the real thing, not even close. Watching this panoply of life, play out before us in the warm waters off Baja California’s Pacific is a wondrous experience. Soon the ball, seemingly a living organism all in itself, moves along the surface propelled by the sardines themselves in a desperate attempt to escape the ocean’s predators which appear by instinct and smell. There are silvery-green dorado in abundance. The so-called “dolphin fish” accelerate into the ball, emerging, chomping on a sardine, struggling to escape the clench of the dorado’s jaw. Gangs of California sea lions arrive and the previously clear Pacific waters become a cloud of fish scales and sardine detritus as the marine mammals take their toll. The scene soon devolves into chaos. On the outside of the madness, something different appears, sleek and elegant, the striped marlins are called to the fray and with luck, one can see these fish, the fastest in the world, hit the ball, spearing a sardine on their way through. As it all unfolds, suddenly the excitement seems to build. Peering down through the depths, illuminated by filtered shafts of sun from above, a gray, incompreensibly massive figure, appears magically, mystically from the gloaming. It is a Bryde’s whale. Sometimes, they glide through and keep going, but sometimes, like today, they rise up through the bait ball and take their share. All the other predators busy preying on the sardines seem to respectfully give way. Then, moments later, the great whale disappears back to the depths.
There are other ways to get out there, I suppose, other ways to experience this must-do wonder of nature, but, hands down, the team at Nautilus aboard the ultra-comfortable Gallant Lady, make this the only way to go! Captain Gerardo, First Mate, Yann and especially the attention to safety, the knowledge and true caring for the guests by the Divemaster and Guide, Manuele was unmatched. A very special shout out goes to Silvia, our mega-attentive host in the lounge, always professional while upbeat and funny, she was there at the stern platform with a hot chocolate and cider at the end of every excursion. This was an expedition to experience the mind-blowing biodiversity of Baja California’s Pacific Coast, both above and below the surface of the ocean, but it is was an extraordinarily comfortable trip aboard Gallant Lady whose crew always had the needs of the guests at the top of their list!Ted Kenefick
Seattle, Washington
December, 2023 aboard the Gallant Lady.
