- San Ignacio Lagoon
San Ignacio Lagoon was originally discovered by whaling captain Jared Poole, brother-in-law to captain Charles Melville Scammon. The first whaling expedition to San Ignacio Lagoon occurred in
1860 led by Scammon and six whaling vessels. Although many whaling captains would not risk losing their ships to the treacherous sand bar shoals and narrow shallow water passage into the lagoon, enough bold whaling captains did and the beginning of the near extinction to the Eastern Pacific Gray Whales "(Eschrichtius robustus)" was on its way. The lagoon is now one of the primary destinations of the Gray Whale migration.Facts about San Ignacio Lagoon
The lagoon is located 59 kilometers (36 miles) from San Ignacio and Highway 1 in
Baja California Sur . With a local community of less than one hundred inhabitants, the lagoon residents depend primarily upon fishing and now whale watching as their primary means of support. The lagoon stretches sixteen miles into the desert and has a maximum width of five miles. The lagoon is divided into three sections. The upper lagoon is the shallowest part and is known as the birthing area where pregnant females travel to in order to bear their young. At the middle lagoon, you find mothers traveling with their newborns, getting them ready to join the majority of the whales at the lower lagoon. At the lower lagoon, you find the majority of the cetaceans and this is where most of the social behavior occurs. Here, males and females congregate looking for mates. In addition, the newborn calves with their mothers travel the length of the lower lagoon preparing themselves for the long journey north to their summer feeding grounds in theArctic .an Ignacio Lagoon’s significance to the world community
In 1988
Mexico established theEl Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve to include San Ignacio Lagoon, which isLatin America ’s largest wildlife sanctuary. Not only is San Ignacio lagoon agray whale sanctuary, but it’s the last and only undeveloped nursery and breeding ground in the world of the PacificGray Whale . San Ignacio lagoon is also the critical habitat for the near extinct Berrendo or prong-horned antelope and an important feeding habitat for four of the worlds seven species ofsea turtle s: leatherbacks, hawksbills, green turtles andOlive Ridley s (all endangered). In1993 theUnited Nations declared San Ignacio lagoon aWorld Heritage site because of its importance to the world community.
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