A WHALE OF A TIME IN BAJA.

Byline: Richard Irwin Staff Writer

MAGDALENA BAY, Mexico - As I peered down at the newborn baby, I could have sworn she looked up at me and smiled. A paternal pang swept through me, and I fought an irresistible urge to reach down and touch her.

The anxious mother may have sensed my intentions and moved the baby away. I had to laugh: Even California gray whales are protective of their young. The new mother must have been worried that I might harm her newborn, even though the baby weighed hundreds of pounds and seemed as long as our 20-foot boat.

This was my first visit to one of the largest nurseries in the world. Five-mile-long Magdalena Bay on Mexico's Baja California peninsula is a secluded lagoon where gray whales have been coming for centuries to bear their young.

On the Pacific Ocean side of Baja about 180 air miles from Cabo San Lucas, Magdalena Bay is one of the main breeding and calving areas for the California grays. Beginning in late December, the whales start to arrive here, having migrated from the Bering Sea in the North Pacific.

The whales, hunted nearly to extinction in the 19th century, have made an impressive comeback, achieving prewhaling numbers. Still, their world is carefully protected, and the only crafts allowed in the water when they are in residence are small tour boats run by licensed operators. And even these boats must stay out of the parts of the lagoon used as a nursery.

Visitors to Magdalena Bay have described mystical experiences with the whales. The friendly animals reportedly come right up to the tour boats, where they let the visitors pet them. The young whales are especially curious, these encounters being their first with human beings.

Desiring a close encounter with these magnificent creatures, I signed up for a daylong excursion during a trip to Cabo San Lucas. It is operated by Aero Calafia and offered at $363 per person.

Just getting to the lagoon proved to be an adventure. My group was shuttled to a small airport outside Cabo, where we clambered aboard a Cessna Caravan, a large twin-prop airplane.

Sitting beside the pilot, I had a spectacular view as we rumbled down the runway and crawled up into the clear blue skies of Baja. I was surprised to find that it would take 75 minutes to fly to Magdalena Bay, which is about one-fifth of the way up the Baja peninsula.

After landing near the bay, we rode a shuttle bus to a small dock, where we split up into groups of five and climbed into pangas - 20-foot wooden boats with outboard motors - for a three-hour tour of the whales' world.

Putt-putting out in the brilliant blue bay, we prepared for our own encounter with these majestic leviathans. Our guide had us searching for ``blows,'' the misty clouds that form along the surface of the water when whales exhale.

Soon we were racing from sighting to sighting. We weren't allowed to approach the whales too closely. Our guide would shoot ahead of the whales and cut our engine. The whales had to come to us; we couldn't pursue them.

What could we possibly be thinking, trying to get close to these giants? The mothers measured more than 50 feet long and weighed more than 30 tons. They could have crushed our tiny boats with one flip of their mighty flukes.

Our guide gave us plenty of good advice. He warned us never to touch their tails - as if someone would be dumb enough to grasp the huge moving flukes. He also told us to keep our hands away from their blow holes. I didn't think we would ever get close enough for that, but we did get sprayed several times when a whale surfaced near us.

We kept our eyes open for behavior common to these mammals. We waited anxiously for the giants to ``fluke'' - when they bring their tail flukes completely out of the water and dive.

Or the whales could ``spy hop'' - raise their heads out of the water, presumably to observe their surroundings.

Some whales ``lob tail'' - slap the surface of the water with their tails.

While many of these actions are fun to watch, the behavior can be infrequent - at least it was when we were there. Our boat tour became a long ordeal as we bobbed about on the bay looking for more whales. But that is the nature of whale-watching: Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

But this is an excellent way to learn about these fascinating creatures.

The whales spend their summers feeding in the Arctic Ocean near Alaska. Led by the pregnant females, the whales swim 6,000 and 10,000 miles to Baja. They make their way south at an average speed of 4 miles per hour - traveling continuously throughout the day and on moonlit nights. The giants rest only a few hours on dark, moonless nights.

The round trip is among the longest undertaken by any migrating animal. The whales spend half the year traveling, resting the other six months. The females, having been impregnated the year before, arrive in the Mexico lagoons first, where they give birth and nurse their offspring.

The lagoons of Baja reportedly have the largest concentration of whales per square mile in the world. The numbers peak in January and February, with literally hundreds of whales filling the three main lagoons.

That's what once attracted the hunters. But little restraint was shown in the slaughters, and by the turn of the 20th century, only a few thousand California gray whales were left.

After laws were enacted to protect them, the species recovered to its prewhaling population of between 15,000 and 20,000. In June 1994, the California gray whale became the first marine mammal to be removed from the endangered species list.

Marine biologists theorize the gray whales choose the lagoons because of their high salinity. This makes the newborn calves more buoyant, making it easier to learn how to nurse and swim.

The shallow water is also much warmer than the open ocean, so the calves lose less body heat. In addition, the lagoons are protected from high waves created by storms, so the calves and their mothers are less likely to become separated.

An abundant supply of sea life feeds the animals during their stay. The calves gain 1,000 pounds while lolling on the surface, sleeping and suckling.

It's the perfect nursery for the newborns. Here they can learn vital survival skills before joining the annual migration back to the Arctic.

The Mexican government has done its share in protecting this vital environment - regulating the boat tours and prohibiting local anglers from fishing the lagoons when whales are present.

You'll also hear many stories about whales coming right up to boats and letting people touch them. This might happen on a regular basis, but it didn't occur on our tour.

Our guide said the calves had just been born, and the mothers were still feeling protective. We did get very close several times, at which time the mothers herded their calves away.

Travelers who want to visit this region on an independent trip (and save themselves the cost of the air tour from Cabo) will find boat tours of the bay available at reasonable prices. Fishermen are not allowed to fish the bay when the whales are present, so they offer to take groups of tourists out for $25 per boat - the rate is set by the Mexican government.

After lunch at a restaurant onshore, we climbed back into our plane for the return flight to Cabo San Lucas.

I thought all the surprises were over, but I was wrong. As we glided over the bay, we could make out the submerged whales below us. They were everywhere, long gray shapes that stood out in the turquoise-blue waters.

As we came to the entrance to the bay, our pilot pointed out a large group of whales literally blocking the channel. He said the males would remain in the entrance to prevent predators from getting into the nursery. It was amazing to see 20 or 30 of these leviathans packed together. From the air, it appeared that you could walk across their backs without getting wet.

When we finally arrived back in Cabo San Lucas after a long day of whale-watching, I decided to take a swim. As I paddled off my hotel's beach, I heard a swishing noise nearby.

Raising my head, I spied several whales passing close to shore. I had spent the day trying to get close to them, and here they were virtually within arm's reach.

IF YOU GO

Aereo Calafia offers whale-watching day trips from Cabo San Lucas to Magdalena Bay. The cost is $363 per person. Guests are picked up at their hotels beginning at 7 a.m. for an 8:15 takeoff. The tour includes the flight, shuttle vans and a whale-watch tour that will last anywhere from 2 1/2 to three hours. The boats return to land around 1:30 p.m. for a lunch of local Mexican specialties before the return flight to Cabo. Guests arrive back at their hotels by 5 p.m. Information: 011-52-114-3-43-02; www.aerocalafia.com.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) At Baja California's Magdalena Bay, some gray whales come so close to the tourist boats that you can pet them.

(2) A gray whale rises to the surface and spouts off Baja California. Tourists can see the whales on boat excursions into Magdalena Bay.

(3) A couple of visitors watch a whale spout as they stand along the shore of Magdalena Bay.

(4) A gray whale ``flukes'' - lifting its tail completely out of the water - as it dives deep into Baja California's Magdalena Bay.

Box: If You Go (see text)