The Flying Mobulas of the Sea of Cortez

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This is the only case I know of that [may] implicates a fish in a play activity. Normally this is something we associate with the post-reptile brain (birds, mammals and marsupials). How we would disambiguate play from non-play in this instance is harder to judge!

Chris Bateman     September 21, 2005

 

I have been visiting El Golfo for the last seven years and have become very close with many who are descedents of generations of fishermen. One such pescador is a close friend of mine and like everyone else in El Golfo, relies on the sea to make a living and to feed his family. Having gone to Penasco for the last seventeen years, I've become well-acquainted with the nature of the fishing/shrimping lifestyle and the cyclic waves of work/profit that the sea seasonally provides.

It is my opinion after seeing relevant data, which my friend has collected that severe overfishing (especially the kind carried out by certain efficient Japanese shrimp trawlers) may have caused irreversible damage to the Sea of Cortez. The decline has been slow for the last decade, but the last three have shown significant reductions across the board in all species. The fishermen I know routinely spend over $200 on gas and oil for pangas and come back with nothing.

I've talked to men in their eighties who have told me that they could once stand on the beach at sunset and watch the water literally turn red from the eyeballs of the shrimp as far as the eye could see.

Brad Lindsay     September 20, 2005

 

Just found your site after doing a search on the web trying to discover why we had seen the strange phenomenon of these creatures jumping out of the Sea of Cortez on a recent trip to Baja. My husband and I really enjoyed your story and photos.

We have been going down to the Agua Verde area (about 25 miles S of Puerto Escondido) for over 10 years, and this year was the first time we've seen the smaller rays jumping around like pancakes. It was both entertaining and perplexing, and we really appreciated your research. In years past (probably at least 5 years ago), we would see larger rays jumping alone out of the water, often from great distances across the water.

I'm also trying to find out why the dolphins (bottlenose, I think) want to come and swim off the bow of our boat. When enroute to various fishing spots (typically in the am), they would come in great numbers to our boat. We slow down to a trolling speed, and they seemed to love to swim in the wake off the front of the boat, vocalize (we can hear it even out of the water), turn sideways to (presumably) look at us, and do little jumps out of the water every now and then. It's one of the most delightful, yet again, perplexing aspects of our regular trips down there. Have you any idea why they do this? While I'd love to think that they're trying to reach out and communicate with us, I wonder if maybe they just like the sound and vibration of the boat motor.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing!

Patty Lakinsmith     April 25, 2007

 

In February of 2007 my brother and I were in Mazatlan for 10 days. We were both fond of swimming in the Ocean off of the downtown Pueblo Bonito Resort. One day my brother told me he had seen something in the waves. As the waves crested and the setting sun shined through them, we saw many of what looked like small Manta Rays. It appeared they were “surfing” the waves just under the surface. We did see several jumping, but not many.

The next day, a native man from Mazatlan was using a cast net in the shallows just off the beach. He caught what he called a Manta, however it looked very similar to the some of the photographs on your web site. He kept the manta to eat. Even against the protests of some vacationing visitors.

I was fascinated by what I saw and found your site. Thanks for the incredible pictures and information.

Ray Sytsma     August 21, 2007