Baja California Sur’s Amazing Biodiversity

As one of the world’s few megadiverse countries, Mexico is home to an estimated 10% to 12% of life on earth. A large percentage of its reptiles and amphibians are endemic, meaning they can be found nowhere else on Earth.
Unsurprisingly, Baja California Sur is home to one of Mexico’s most dynamic ecosystems. In fact, few places on Earth can rival the state’s marine biodiversity, where the Sea of Cortéz truly lives up to its nickname as the ‘Aquarium of the World,’ so named in the 1960s by the late French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. For snorkelers and scuba divers alike, adventures await beneath the surface of the sea.
In perhaps the biggest nature news story of the summer, BCS has become the first state in Mexico to legalize swimming with orcas, a.k.a. “killer whales.” (For the record, orcas are members of the oceanic dolphin family, not whales).
In an unprecedented species management plan, the state has issued a decree legalizing and regulating the activity of swimming with orcas, one of the world’s most highly intelligent animals. The regulations apply solely to the seaside town of La Ventana on the East Cape, where the majority of the boats offering orca-tracking services now operate. A limited number of permitted vessels are allowed to surround an individual or family of orcas on any given day.
Revenues from the boat permits are used to subsidize training programs for captains and local residents—and also pay for patrol boats to enforce the state’s “Special Protection” decree. According to Georgina Saad, a Baja-based marine biologist, “The goal is to teach captains and guides how to read the orcas’ behavior so they know when to interact with the animals, how to do so safely, and when to give them space.”
Due north of La Ventana, the waters around La Paz, specifically the tip of El Mogote peninsula, offer aquatic enthusiasts the chance to swim alongside whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea. These enormous, filter-feeding plankton eaters, up to 40 feet in length, are not hunters, so snorkeling alongside them is safe. Swimming just beneath the surface, the sunlight dappling their broad polka-dotted backs, these gentle giants allow people to approach them without risk, despite the fact that their mouths are six feet wide and contain over 3,000 tiny teeth.
In addition, the island of Espíritu Santo, a short boat trip away from La Paz, is home to a large colony of sea lions. Snorkelers and divers are greeted here by acrobatic, whiskered sea lions and pups that will zip past your mask, barrel-rolling and nibbling playfully at your fins.
Farther afield, roughly five to six hours north of Los Cabos by car, are protected warm-water lagoons in the Pacific Ocean, notably Magdalena Bay. This is where gray whales and their calves seek shelter following their epic 6,000-mile migration from the Arctic Sea.
Many of these whales seek out human interaction, a profoundly moving experience that feels both ancient and deeply personal. Small pangas (skiffs) venture into the bay, where gray whale calves will often approach the pangas, rising so close that passengers can count their barnacles and touch their soft, rubbery skin.
Closer to Los Cabos, Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park, an hour’s drive north of San Jose del Cabo, offers encounters with more than 800 resident and migratory species of fish and sea mammals. The park’s gin-clear waters, vibrant coral reefs and abundant marine life, including octopus, manta rays and sea turtles, add up to a world-class underwater viewing experience.
Los Cabos was recently named the “Best Overall Destination for Diving” by Scuba Diving Magazine, earning the prestigious Readers’ Choice Award. While highlighting Land’s End, specifically the spellbinding underwater “sand falls” in view for divers near a rock named Neptune’s Finger, the publication called special attention to Cabo Pulmo, home to the hemisphere’s northernmost hard coral reef. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park protects one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems on Earth. Best of all, Cabo Pulmo offers both beginner and experienced snorkelers and divers an unparalleled underwater adventure.