2024 Mobulas & Orca Season was Amazing!
2024-09-19
Mobula & Orcas in the Sea of Cortez
Imagine snorkeling with ten thousand mobula rays or crossing paths with a pod of orcas in the beautiful blue waters of Baja California Sur… This is exactly what our Mobula & Orca Expeditions in the Sea of Cortez are all about. Real encounters with wild nature from March through July every year. We explore these rich waters aboard our expedition yacht, a 45-foot sailing catamaran, and from our beach camp on Isla Espíritu Santo.
Recently, wildlife filmmaker Carlos Guana — known for his work with National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and the BBC — shot this dramatic film from the Nautilus Gallant Lady: ‘Orcas Hunting Mobula Rays’. It’s raw and powerful. A reminder that the Sea of Cortez is one of the most extraordinary marine environments on Earth.
🎥 Watch the film: ‘Orcas Hunting Rays’ in the Sea of Cortez on YouTube
⚠️ Viewer warning: this is Mother Nature at work — spectacular, unpredictable, and very real.
Authentic Adventure, Not a Show
You never quite know what will happen on an orca expedition — and that’s exactly the point. This definitely isn’t a show at Disney Land; it’s a true Baja Expedition, a real adventure. Each trip includes patient search time and unforgettable moments in the water.
Our dedicated spotter airplane is our eye in the sky. It dramatically improves your chances of seeing orcas and mobula rays, and when we do, it’s the experience of a lifetime. The odds are pretty darned good, at around 75% and sightings continue to grow. In 2024, one trip had no orcas… but the very next week, we saw them five days in a row.
We’re increasingly convinced that at least three pods of orcas are now resident year-round in the Sea of Cortez—not just near La Ventana, but further north as well. Although the peak orca season runs from March through to July, our teams have spotted orcas as late as September 19th!
If you’ve ever dreamed of witnessing one of the ocean’s most intelligent predators in the wild… There’s no better place than the Sea of Cortez & Baja California Sur.
