Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea…Baja Style

Brad Erisman of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego (left) and Ralph Chaney of iTV aboard DeepSee submersible during their 2008 expedition to Gulf of California. photo; Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego

Last year Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and San Diego Natural History Museum partnered a series of underwater expeditions in the Sea of Cortez using a DeepSee submarine, reminiscent of Jules Verne’s visions when he authored his classic science fiction novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, in 1870.

Captain Nemo would have been right at home in this state-of-the-art custom built one-atmosphere submarine, capable of carrying one pilot and two passengers down to a depth of 1,500 feet. The crystal clear four inches thick sphere literally disappears when submerged. It provides the occupants an unparalleled and unobstructed 360 degree view of the undersea world. DeepSee was designed to allow its passengers to board and disembark the sub while it is floating alongside a mother ship. Decompression isn’t necessary.

One expedition included researchers Exequiel Ezcurra (adjunct professor at Scripps Oceanography and former provost of the San Diego Natural History Museum), Brad Erisman (Scripps postdoctoral researcher), and Octavio Aburto-Oropeza (graduate student researcher). They used the three-person DeepSee to explore marine life in the Gulf of California's deep sea reefs and around undersea seamounts. The vehicle allowed the researchers unique access to depths below 164 feet which is generally inaccessible to SCUBA divers. The results were revealing, yielding some of the Sea of Cortez’s deep sea secrets.

"Our investigation resulted in many new discoveries which included new species of invertebrates and possibly fishes," said Erisman. "We collected and observed species that had not been recorded in the gulf, had never been observed alive or had never been observed at such depths."

The exploration at depths formally inaccessible also yielded evidence of disturbing declines in sea life populations caused by human impact. Large schools of fish documented in earlier expeditions at locations such as the El Bajo seamount have vanished.

"The human impacts in shallow areas have been well documented, but our observations make it clear that we are reaching down deeper and affecting the deeper ecosystems and their communities as well," said Aburto-Oropeza. "We have lots of evidence of ghost nets with trapped animals at many depths, along with pollution, including beer cans, in each deep location we studied."

As the researchers ventured farther offshore to Las Animas, a seamount tucked halfway between Loreto and La Paz, (an area that has little impact from fishing, boating and human activities), they found encouraging booming fish populations, an extraordinarily rich variety of red snapper, unique shrimp and possibly new species of sea urchins and cucumbers.

On another trip in October, Erisman and Aburto-Oropeza studied marine life at Cabo Pulmo, a protected national park near the southern tip of the Baja peninsula. In the absence of human environmental pressures, like Los Animas farther to the north, they recorded a "biodiversity hotspot" with thriving fish populations and a rich mix of sea life. They even witnessed large tiger sharks, now a rarity in Baja California. According to Erisman and Aburto-Oropeza, "Cabo Pulmo, demonstrates that if the areas are protected over time they can rebound to a previous healthier ecosystem state." World-renowned marine biologist, Bill Boyce recently wrote, “If Cabo Pulmo Marine Park wasn’t protected, it would be a biological desert, over fished, and then over looked.”

Off the beaten track Los Animas and Cabo Pulmo are living proof that there is still time to implement conservation and management practices that will restore healthy marine-life populations. Hopefully, this added to growing body of evidence will influence the Mexican Government to pursue more aggressive conservation efforts.

http://www.underseahunter.com/uh.htm

Finally…GPS Road Maps

The Baja Navigator works with any Garmin GPS product that uses MapSource™ Software.

If you fish, chances are you wouldn’t dream of heading out fishing without a Global Positioning System (GPS)… of one kind or another. Last spring, Yvonne gave me a Garmin unit for the Roadtrek van. My initial reaction was something along the lines of, “This is just another superfluous toy; I don’t need directions.”

Within a few weeks, however, I was as addicted to the GPS on my dash as I am of the marine version. Whether I’m traveling across town or cross-country, I don’t leave home without it! I have become accustomed to relying on the silky female voice of this device gently prodding me to turn this way or that, becoming seemingly more strident nearing the turn and finally mumbling “recalculate” in disgust when I miss the turn completely.

As I crossed the border into Tijuana on my next road trip, I glanced at the GPS on the dash and only a red line representing Mex 1 appeared -nothing else - no streets, service stations, or hotels…bummer!

After that trip, I searched the web for Baja maps which could be used with my Garmin. I found that GPS and laptop interface users have both Raster and Vector maps to choose from.

Raster maps are similar to paper maps and are converted into large image files. In addition to taking up lots of space, the files cannot be ‘searched’ or ‘zoomed’ beyond the resolution of the original map.

Vector maps save the map information as data (rather than images) which can be interpreted and searched by a computer or the GPS unit. Garmin offers a program called MapSource© which will open the Vector maps once they are uploaded onto your computer.

Larry Buck, owner of LB Maps, was my first contact. He began traveling to Baja with his family in the early 90’s.

It is important to note, LB Maps and Larry Buck are not just simply reselling maps, they are ‘hands on’. Using government data, satellite imaging for verification and real time updates gathered from his and other users’ frequent Baja trips, he is able to provide updates on a regular basis. The Baja Navigator works with any Garmin GPS product that uses MapSource© Software.

LB Maps’ Baja Navigator, with free updates for a year, was just what I was looking for!

Larry also offers Bicimapas maps. While these are more expensive, they include both the mainland of Mexico as well as Baja. In addition, they offer more detail, topo-contour lines and they work on both Garmin and Magellan GPS units.

Now comes the “I didn’t know I could do that” part: MapSource© software allows you to edit maps to include your own waypoints, routes and other points of interest. Then, these updates can be downloaded directly to your GPS device. On return trips, you will already have a jumpstart on your trip and you will possess some local knowledge that can be ever-expanding.

Whether your interest lies in off-roading, bicycling, hiking, fishing, RVing or just wandering around Baja, you will find, as I did, that GPS maps and devices are a welcome and an invaluable traveling tool.

http://www.lbmaps.com/

2009 Here We Come!!!

As we head into the New Year, I thought that it would be interesting to hear what some of the experts in Southern Baja expected might happen in their respective areas. Here are a few of their responses.

Cabo San Lucas

It’s hard to predict with any accuracy, but in reviewing the last two falls, I believe in 2009 the striped marlin fishing, as well as the shark fishing, will stay the same or even increase.

Tuna catches have been fewer and we are not seeing as many quality fish as we have in previous years; then again most boats are not willing to spend the time and fuel going to look for them. Tracy Ehrenberg

San Jose del Cabo
We expect another quality winter and spring bite lasting until the warming conditions attract the exotics in late spring and on through the summer months.

Local business operators are cautiously optimistic that the United States’ economical crisis will not cause a downfall in the tourist industry in Southern Baja. Hopefully the cheaper fuel prices will allow airlines to lower their ticket prices and people will be able to afford traveling.
Eric Brictson

East Cape
Water temperatures are quite a bit warmer than normal…75 degrees, indicating an early spring bite. While local hotels are anticipating fewer anglers in the coming year, the lighter fishing pressure is bound to help the fishing. The billfishing on the Pacific side has been very strong this winter and with the warmer water, these fish should migrate into the Sea of Cortez earlier than usual. The tuna fishing has also been good on the Pacific side. With any luck we'll see an early tuna bite as well. John Ireland

The sport fish of the East Cape have no idea the world is suffering financial difficulties. Those fishermen fortunate enough to visit should be in store for some epic fishing action. Mark Rayor

La Paz
I wish I could say what will happen. Just when I think I have a handle on things, nature surprises us! I'm looking forward to a more normal year with good inshore fishing for pargo, cabrilla, amberjack and yellowtail from the end of winter to early spring. Then I expect the dorado will get back on track with smaller school fish early, getting larger as the season goes into the fall.

Wahoo are cyclical, so hopefully more wahoo this year from the end of spring to fall and this should be a good fall for better sized tuna. We had a good year in 2008 for striped marlin so I expect we'll see more sailfish in 2009 if patterns hold for our area. Jonathan Roldan

Loreto

The weather patterns this year are milder than we have seen in recent years. Also the fish that are being caught now are more consistent and larger than we are accustomed to catching this time of year. This information points to an early spawn…however we are not yet seeing egg sacks which indicates that we should expect a typical spawn cycle time period. In terms of numbers of fish in the yellowtail population, it appears to be healthy despite the frequency of shoreline gillnetting that has taken place over the last year. I would even be comfortable to say that our spring 2009 run will probably be typical to above average in terms of quality and size of fish. Pam Bolles

Cabo San Lucas
Tracy Ehrenberg http://www.piscessportfishing.com/
San Jose del Cabo
Gordo Bank Pangas www.gordobanks.com
East Cape
Rancho Leonero Hotel http://www.rancholeonero.com/
Vista Sea Sport http://vistaseasport.com/
La Paz
Jonathan Roldan's Tailhunter International www.tailhunter-international.com
Loreto
Baja Big Fish Company http://www.bajabigfish.com

A Small Solution to a Big Problem

Captain Sergio Garcia was eager to give the Hobie a shot. In the water it went and in minutes he was being towed around by a tuna.

Hobie Mirage i9S Inflatable Bridges the Gap

I frequently spend the night in remote areas as I travel up and down the Baja peninsula in my Roadtrek, a practice which allows me to take advantage of the opportunities to fish on pristine, virtually unfished beaches. The satisfaction of catching quality fish from shore can be exhilarating, but many times the fish are frantically feeding just out of casting range. In the past, my options were to tow a small boat, carry a float tube device or maybe carry a kayak on top. While allowing me to bridge that gap from beach to offshore, these options are hardly worth the hassle as my goal is to be able to stop and quickly take advantage of a fishing opportunity.

Last July, at the world’s largest sportfishing trade show, the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades in La Vegas, better known as ICAST, Hobie Kayaks PR Director, Ingrid Niehaus, introduced me to their latest kayak, the 9’ Inflatable Hobie Mirage i-9S. Weighing only 53 pounds, the Hobie quickly inflates and deflates and comes standard with a rolling travel bag designed to be transported in cars, trucks, RV's, or boats. Its small dimensions makes it easy to store in condos or any other place where space is limited. The travel bag is within allowable dimensions for air travel with a slight surcharge for extra weight.

But more importantly, the Hobie MirageDrive is simple and easy to use. Your feet rest naturally on pedals similar to a bicycle. You use your leg muscles to pedal (or paddle), freeing your hands for casting. The pedal mechanism is connected to two underwater flippers, which are similar to penguin wings. The steering is controlled via the left side, and it has a fingertip-controlled twist and tow rudder system. The pedaling is quiet and creates no splash.

Let me be clear, I fish first and I wasn’t looking for a new fishing platform. The technical aspects of ‘kayaking’ are best left to experts like Paul Lebowitz,, WON Kayak Chronicles. My interest was not in kayaking, but in being able to take advantage of fishing opportunities which had eluded me in the past.

When I took delivery of my kayak last September, Vince Console, Fishing Product Manager, gave me a quick course in Inflatable Kayak 101. Out the Hobie popped from its travel bag and in just a few minutes, Vince had it inflated using the hand pump that was part of the package. After demonstrating the patented Mirage Drive, Vince had covered the basic features of the boat and it was deflated, packed and loaded into the Roadtrek.

On the first trip I made with the Hobie down Mex 1, I spotted a handful of baitballs with birds diving into the fray as I zipped down the hill overlooking Bahia de Concepción. I pulled off on a small beach and unloaded the Hobie. In minutes I was on the water, pedaling toward crashing fish with a flyrod in hand. The hands-free operation of the kayak allowed me to work the edges and it was full on fishing for a couple of hours. Yellowtail, roosterfish and small barracuda were all easy marks for my fly. I lost count of the number of fish I caught before I returned to the van.

The Hobie and I have made several trips since that first one. I become bolder (with maybe a hint of dependency) as I increase my skill and confidence.
I just returned from an offshore trip at Magdalena Bay and yep! I loaded up the Hobie on the boat heading for Thetis Bank and deep sea fishing. It wasn’t long before we were in a WFO tuna bite in flat calm seas. Captain Sergio Garcia was eager to give the Hobie a shot. In the water it went and in minutes he was being towed around by a tuna.

Most kayaks have a “show me what you’ve have” feel requiring some technical skills; the Hobie with the MirageDrive is more a “let me help you” kind of kayak…which was just what I was looking for!

Good Guys…Good Soles

Several hundred families lined up early on a Saturday morning to be outfitted in new shoes and clothing provided by the group.

In late October on a trip to East Cape, I headed down to the beach early one morning to photograph the boats departing for the day’s fishing from Hotel Palmas de Cortez. As I headed out the front gate, I noticed a large group of Mexican families lined up on the Driving Range in front of tables piled high with shoe boxes and t-shirts. Curiosity got the best of me. I parked and walked over to see what was going on.

Jack McCulloch, one of the sponsors McCulloch’s Wide Shoes, proceeded to explain what was happening.

He explained that the Fishers of Men had been holding their tournament in East Cape, Mexico, for several years when a hurricane devastated the area and left the people they had come to know homeless. With a desire to give back to the villagers and help them in some small way, Fishers of Men contacted Soles4Souls, a charity dedicated to donating shoes to the poor, to children, and to victims of disasters. The two groups joined forces and in 2006, the Fishers of Men turned their tournament into a fund raiser, raffling off donations from many fishing industry companies and using the money to pay the freight costs incurred for Soles4Souls to bring thousands of pairs of shoes across the border.

The next year Fishers of Men and Soles4Soles created a second tournament, named ‘Casting for Souls’, for the express purpose of bringing shoes and other donated clothing items to the needy villagers in the East Cape and surrounding areas.

This tournament is now held every October at Hotel Palmas de Cortez and is geared toward members of the shoe and fishing industries. The hotel’s owners, the Van Wormer family, are major sponsors of the tournament and work hard to make the tournament a success. After two days of amazing fishing, the event culminates in the attendees handing out their donations and seeing ‘up close and personal’ the joy of the recipients.

This year, Team Zappos won the 2nd Annual Casting for Souls Tournament with a 120 pound yellowfin tuna. Second place went to Team HiTec Shoes with a 51 pound yellowfin.

On the third day, tournament attendees handed out several thousand pairs of shoes in one day as well as more than 2,000 of the 5,000 special Guy Harvey t-shirts donated by Bill Shedd of Aftco. The remainder of shoes and t-shirts will be given to needy people by Soles4Souls in the secluded areas of the Sierra Nevadas during trips planned later this month.

Attendees this year included David Graber from Soles4Souls; Jack McCulloch from McCulloch’s Wide Shoes, Director of Fishers of Men; Kit McNear from Western Outdoor News; Bobby Van Wormer of Van Wormer Resorts; Bill Bonta, CEO of HiTec Boot Company; and Steve Gebhart of Zappos.Com.

Additional sponsors who made this year’s tournament possible include Albackore Sport Fishing Gear, Ande, Inc, Baja Fish Gear, Ballyhood Lures, Booya Clothing Co., Eagle Claw, Fisherman’s Access, Izorline, Bob Kotula, Pacific Coast Sportfishing Magazine, Pelagic, Inc., PLine, and David Holmes.

It is gratifying when you realize what can be accomplished when a group of “Good Guy’s” comes up with a “Great Idea” benefitting a small Baja Community.


Mom gratefully accepts a brand new pair of shoes for her young son.

Proyecto Caguama

The Proyecto Caguama team, with Gobernador Narciso Agúndez Montaño’s help, measured, weighed, cleaned, tagged and recorded the information about a captured turtle and returned it to the wild.

Puerto Lopez Mateos is one of the hot spots where the critically endangered loggerhead sea turtle gathers in huge numbers to feast on pelagic red crabs. The turtles begin their lives in Japan and then embark on an incredible journey across the Pacific Ocean to Baja where they feed and mature. This journey may take as long as 30 years!
• When the animals are approaching sexual maturity, Pacific loggerheads migrate over 7,500 miles (12,000 km) between nesting beaches in Japan and feeding grounds off the coast of Baja, Mexico!
• During the 3 months or so that a female loggerhead breeds, she will travel natal beaches in Japan to mate and lay 35 lbs. (15.9 kg) of eggs or more, then swim back to her home foraging area, all without eating anything significant.
• From hatchling to adult, a loggerhead increases its weight more than 6,000 times! An adult weighs about 250 pounds.
• Although they are good swimmers, loggerheads have callus-like traction scales beneath their flippers which allow them to "walk" on the ocean floor.

Hoyt Peckham, a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology and Director of the San Diego based ProPeninsula since 2003, has been studying the loggerhead turtles in southern Baja California, where they congregate to feed. His research addresses important questions about the migrations, habitat use, and life history of these remarkable animals, and the results are helping to shape future conservation efforts. The problems are many, but Peckham, along with Proyecto Caguama (Project Loggerhead) established by ProPenninsula, is working within the local fishing community to achieve awareness and help change the deep-rooted patterns of the area’s inhabitants. To local fishermen in Baja California, loggerhead turtles had always seemed to be abundant and thriving.

Early on, a local halibut fisherman in Baja impressed on Peckham the gravity of the problem.
“How can loggerhead turtles possibly be endangered?” the man asked. “I caught 30 in my nets this morning.”

Since that first encounter, Peckham and his research team of local student interns have interviewed dozens of fishermen, observed hundreds of fishing trips, and surveyed thousands of miles of beaches to calculate the enormity of the by-catch problem.
“Our findings are staggering,” he said. “We estimate that thousands of loggerheads are killed each year as incidental catch just along a very narrow bit of the Baja California Sur coast.”
Surveys of the nesting beaches in Japan have shown declines in nesting activity of 50- to 90-percent since 1990. Because it takes at least 30 years for a loggerhead turtle to reach reproductive maturity, there are far more juveniles in the population than adults.

Peckham is partnering directly with local fishermen to develop alternatives to current fishing practices and to spread the word about reducing sea turtle by-catch throughout Baja California fishing communities. Wallace J. Nichols, a biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, who pioneered sea turtle research and conservation in Baja, has been instrumental in these efforts. Working with Nichols through ProPeninsula, a bi-national nonprofit organization focused on the Baja California peninsula, Peckham also oversees the efforts of Proyecto Caguama.

Proyecto Caguama provides many outreach activities and materials which include workshops, local student internships, regional turtle festivals, school enrichment programs, community murals, films, and even comic books. Funding for the projects has come from an impressive list of sources. Peckham said the local fishermen are almost always receptive to the idea of protecting the turtles once they understand their important role in the turtles’ future.

Additional information about turtle conservation efforts in Baja California can be found at the following web sites.
www.propeninsula.org/
www.grupotortuguero.org/

Pig Roast…A Forty Year Tradition

Meanwhile, the star of the show, the pig, had been cooked to perfection

Roughly 750 miles south of the border in the small village of Mulegé, Don Johnson and his family have been hosting an extraordinary Mexican fiesta at his 50-room Hotel Serenidad every Saturday evening for the past forty years.

While I had heard and read stories about this unique event, Serenidad’s authentic Mexican Pig Roast, I had never attended one. On my many trips driving back and forth on Mex 1, my timing always seemed to be wrong and I was never in the Mulegé neighborhood on a Saturday night.

This trip I arranged my schedule so I could be there!

In 1963, Don Johnson opened the Hotel Serenidad on the south side of the Mulegé River complete with a 2,800-foot airstrip which he later lengthened to 4,000 feet. Over the years, the hotel and its airstrip have been a focal point of many Baja adventures, and the ‘Saturday Night Pig Roast’ has become a tradition for numerous Baja travelers.

I arrived at the hotel on Saturday evening where I found a handful of private planes parked on the runway in front of the hotel. The parking lot itself had a mixture of vehicles including RV’s, dune buggies, dirt bikes and even a bright and shiny Lexus, reflecting the diversity of the group inside.

In the bar every stool was occupied and behind them others crowded around ordering margaritas in glasses the size of small bird baths. The price of dinner included the first drink which definitely helped to get the fiesta underway!

Meanwhile, the star of the show, the pig, had been cooked to perfection…long enough for the succulent meat to fall away from the bone. Talk about sweet meat! The cook raises the pigs on a diet of dates that fall from date palms which were introduced to Mulegé by Catholic Priests many generations ago.

Out in the patio, festive decorations and a buffet table laden with the pig and all the ‘fixings’ completed the picture as the waiters announced that dinner was served. Fresh salad, homemade frijoles, fresh tortillas, and several especially prepared salsas were piled high on each plate along with enough of the sweet pork to satisfy the hungriest of guests.

Conversation flowed easy with this group who all seemed to have one common dominator: Baja and its wonders. The table filled up as strangers invited each other to join their table. Before long the dining room was buzzing with Baja chatter as plates of food were eaten, filled and refilled until everyone was full and then dinner was topped off with a special Mexican dessert.

By this time, the Mariachis were beginning their show, which after thirty –five years of practice was impressive. Many guests called out a favorite song as others sang along to someone else’s selection. Still others thought the music called for dancing, and the room was alive with revelry as the guests enjoyed the ‘fiesta’. Excellent food, huge margaritas and wonderful entertainment provided this eclectic group of Baja aficionados the opportunity to step back in time into another world, Baja as it was, and in this case, as it continues to be.

It is easy to understand why this Pig Roast has become a Forty Year Tradition. It was worth the effort to be in Mulegé on a Saturday night, and it is likely that you’ll find me at the Hotel Serenidad fiesta again on my next trip!