The Americas' Stunning Footage of Leaping Rays, Blue Whales, and Dolphin Super Pods in the Sea of Cortez
The Americas visits "the aquarium of the world" in the Sea of Cortez.
The Americas is an expansive journey across the American continents. Over the course of 5 years and 180 expeditions, filmmakers captured incredible landscapes and jaw-dropping animal behaviors from hares with snowshoe feet in the frozen north to super-powered ducks swimming superheated Andean rivers, and so much more.
Each episode focuses on a specific region, spending time with the various critters who call those places home. The series devotes an entire episode to Mexico, a place where the North American continent meets the tropics, smashing the sweltering Sonoran Desert in the north against dense rainforests in the south.
The Sonoran stretches 100,000 square miles and is pockmarked by lava flows and ancient volcanoes, fingerprints of the geologic forces which carved the landscape. Six million years ago, those same geologic forces severed the connection between the Baja peninsula and the mainland, forming the Sea of Cortez in the process. Its warm, sheltered waters are one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, sometimes called “the aquarium of the world.”
The flying rays of the Sea of Cortez
Mobula rays, commonly called flying rays, have flat, diamond-shaped bodies with long fins. Most of the time, they use those features to glide gracefully through the water in search of small fish and zooplankton to eat. Sometimes, though, they launch themselves up to 6 feet out of the water, flapping all the way.
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There are 9 species of mobula rays, all of which jump for reasons which aren’t totally clear and may vary from species to species or even from situation to situation. Scientists speculate the rays jump as a form of communication, as a mating display, or as a hunting strategy. They might also do it just for the fun of it.
They are in the same family as manta rays and similar in appearance. Despite their other common name, “devil rays,” they pose little danger to people. Only one species of flying ray has a functioning stinger. The rest either have a stinger encased inside their bodies or lack a stinger entirely. It hasn’t stopped them from finding success though. You can find fling rays worldwide, including in the Sea of Cortez.
Blue whales, the world’s largest animals, swimming in the Sea of Cortez
The waters of the Sea of Cortez are warm, protected, and nutrient rich. The narrow sea supports large populations of small fish, krill, and other tasty aquatic morsels, which in turn support large predators. The Sea of Cortez is home to a wide variety of aquatic species including the world’s largest mammals, the great whales.
You can find blue whales there, not only the largest animal alive today, but the largest animal to have ever lived. They can stretch up to 98 feet long, more than two city buses parked end to end, and weigh more than 150 tons. The hearts are the size of a car, with vessels large enough for a human to crawl through.
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Their migration patterns take them from the North Pacific to the coasts of Mexico and Central America. The Sea of Cortez serves as a migration corridor and breeding ground. They typically arrive between February and March, following their favorite food. Despite their incredible size, blue whales eat almost exclusively krill, one of the smallest creatures in the sea. They can consume up to 4 tons of krill today, filtering them out of the water with massive baleen plates.
Dolphin super pods and the orca who hunt them
The Sea of Cortez is so enticing that 40% of marine mammal species are found there, including blue whales, humpback whales, gray whales, orcas, and super pods of dolphins thousands of individuals strong.
Dolphins usually swim in much smaller pods of about 10 - 30 individuals, depending on the species and nature of the pod. Typical pod types include nursery pods made up of adult females and their calves. As calves grow up, they’ll either leave or get kicked out to make room for new babies. Young dolphins gather together in juvenile pods to finish growing up. Adult females join or start nursery pods while adult males hang out together in bachelor pods.
Sometimes, however, many pods come together to form a massive super pod made up of hundreds or thousands of dolphins. Super pods are often a mix of multiple species all swimming together. They might do this to keep safe from predators, because they’re all following the same food source, or just to socialize.
Whatever their reasons, you can find some of the largest gatherings of cetaceans on the planet in the Sea of Cortez and on The Americas.
