The Gray Whales Choose Us Conference Edition

This film shows the amazing majesty, friendly and playful side of these gentle giants. Dramatic aerial drone footage gives us a perspective that is seldom seen. Mother Gray Whales will bring their baby calves to boats for human attention. These Gray Whales literally CHOOSE US, the people, to interact with. They absolutely love to be touched and rubbed. These baby whales learn this behavior and as adults, they will come back to this same lagoon and bring their babies to meet the humans too. This experience was truly magical and will be a lifelong memory.

This film was captured while Sky High Videography was on location in San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja Mexico, along with London based, Windfall Films and Pachicos Eco Tours. This footage and other was part of a PBS nature series titled “Sex in the Wild” which aired in 2014.

Each morning the crew gathered before walking out to the boats. The early tide would be out resulting in about a 300 yard walk from the beach out to where the boats were anchored offshore. Home sweet home for those few days was Pachicos Ecco Tours. The camp is relatively primitive and remote, however, there were simple compost toilets and showers with solar heated hot water. Everything was designed to have a minimal eco footprint on the environment.

Special thanks to Pachico’s Eco Tours which is internationally known for being the whale watching pioneers of San Ignacio Lagoon and Baja. Pachico Mayoral was the first person to have an encounter with a friendly gray whale. Pachico’s encounter with a friendly gray whale, and his tours to introduce people to the gray whales, began to change the perception that gray whales were the “devil fish.” Clearly, that negative perception couldn’t have been farther from the real truth. Amazing that they want to touch the same humans that nearly hunted them into extinction in the last century.

In 1972, after his first friendly encounter with a gray whale, Pachico began running whale watching trips in the San Ignacio Lagoon. Today Pachico’s Eco Tours is the only fully locally managed whale watching outfitter in the lagoon. Pachico’s Eco Tours is a unique whale and wildlife watching organization operated by Pachico’s son, Jesus Mayoral.

For more information on these whale watching tours visit: pachicosecotours.com