We say goodbye to the whales!
This end of the whale season we want to share some of the news and activities carried out. We did research monitoring and saw some familiar whales. We also had several RABEN rescues and even had to support strandings. We strengthened our “Less Speed = More Lives” campaign to prevent collisions between boats and whales. To end the season, we held a grand opening event for our new mascot, “La Bonita,” as part of our efforts to raise awareness about marine conservation.
Below is a summary of our activities.
National Presentation of "La Bonita"!
On March 23, the whale watching season on the coasts of Jalisco and Nayarit ended and with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of respecting and not disturbing the last remaining whales, on March 24 we presented “La Bonita ” at La Cruz Market that takes place on Sundays at the Marina Riviera Nayarit.
La Bonita is a 13m long inflatable whale, which in addition to having an impressive size, you can visit its interior to see the arrangement of its organs. We named it in honor of a female (3BB092) that has been visiting Banderas Bay since 2002 and has had at least 5 babies.
The investigation does not stop 2023-2024
For the fifth consecutive year we carried out Humpback Whale Research Monitoring in Banderas Bay. With the purpose of documenting the timing, abundance and distribution of the bay’s whales.
We carry out monitoring from November to April during which we record the type of group, behavior of the whales, their geographical position and if there is singing activity. We also took photographs of their caudal fins or tails for photo identification.
Which Whales returned this year?
Photo-identification allows us to identify the different individuals in the population and this year we saw several well-known whales, including:
La Vaca, La Cobaneña and Scarlet
La Vaca is a whale known since 2008. It has returned several seasons and is almost always found in courtship groups of up to 8 whales. Most likely it is a male.
La Cobaneña, in addition to being our visitor, is one of the whales that reach Central America, we know that it can reach El Salvador, which is where they gave it that name. We know he is a male and we have known him since 2002.
Scarlet is a female we have known since 2007 and is easy to recognize by the scars from killer whale attacks on her tail fin. We have seen her three times with a baby. A true survivor!
Preventing collisions between boats and whales
Collisions between whales and boats are very dangerous for both people and whales, which is why this year we reinforced our campaign “Less Speed = More Lives”
In addition to the tarps that are always placed in the marinas and boarding points of the Bay of Banderas and Los Cabos, this year advertisements were placed on trucks on the Puerto Vallarta-Punta de Mita route in the months of January and February and allusive decals were made. to the topic.
Cindy, our ambassador of the “Less speed = More lives” campaign and “Swim for whales” returned this year with a new calf, so we decided to take the opportunity to make a new video, sharing the story of this whale that survived a collision and it is an example of hope.
Seeing them free makes us happy
Until this point in the 2023-2024 season, the different RABEN teams have gone into action and have freed 11 entangled whales!
The RABEN teams continue to work on alert until the last whale leaves, so our work is not over yet.
This season surprised us with a high record of whale mortality in Banderas Bay, which is why we found ourselves in the need to support the stranding network by performing three necropsies.
Don’t miss the next bulletin with details and more information on attention to entanglements and strandings this season.
Meanwhile, we share this video of the rescue on December 20, 2023 in Banderas Bay.
Look for news soon about this season's rescues!
Thank you so much!
One of our tasks during each season is to spread good navigation practices in different parts of Banderas Bay by distributing flyers with the help of our volunteers and exhibiting our inflatable humpback calf to Kuikani.
This season we are very happy to share that we have added a new group of very enthusiastic volunteers from the Centro Universitario de la Costa of the University of Guadalajara: Salma, Brisa, Erika, Dulce, Melisa, Dana, Miranda, Ximena, Joseline, Elizabeth, Valeria, Jázmin, Doris from the KW group, Itzel Sandoval and Jessica Saranya Eberle, in addition to our beloved volunteers from previous seasons: Isabel Morán, Azucena Enríquez, Olivia Núñez, Monserrat Servín, Mariana Vidriales, Katie Lavery, Bárbara Flores, Amy Osback and Professor Julio Arriaga and his students from the Harkness Institute.
We thank all of our volunteers for their support in carrying out these activities!
Special thanks
To the Biomar Ecological Foundation, Opequimar Centro Marino, PV Marine, Ecotours Vallarta, RIU Hotels and Resorts, WWF México, Nado por las Ballenas and the RABEN members for supporting us to make this season a success.
The whales leave but at ECOBAC we continue working.
We need your support to continue studying and protecting these incredible creatures.
