When Astrid Frisch of Ecotours gave me a letter of intent to participate in a grand catalog of the population of Humpback whales in Banderas Bay, on November 19th 2002, I had already more that 100 whales cataloged and I’m sure Isabel and Hugo of Open Air Expeditions probably had many more since they had been photographing them since 1996 already.
Astrid told me that the photographs that she was going to get from us will only be used in the catalog and that it was not going to be used for commercial benefit of any of our business.
This was the main reason that convinced me to join this project.
So we thought it was a great idea and if we were going to trust anybody with our work, that person was Astrid and we immediately got on board and have started to contribute to the Banderas Bay photo ID project.
At the beginning there were seven companies participating, Astrid Frisch of Ecotours; Isabel Cárdenas and Hugo Brodziak of Open Air Expeditions; Biologist Roberto Moncada of Instituto Tecnológico del Mar #6 (ITMAR), now ITBB; Biologist Sherman Hernández of the Centro Regional de Investigación Pesquera (INP); Oscar Frey of Ocean Friendly; Ricardo Farkas, Carlos Oliveira, Tyania Diffin, Christel Reimnick and Octavia Jolley of Vallarta Adventure and of course Alfredo Herrera of Discover Pacific Tours.
We also have the support of the University of Guadalajara, Department of Sciences, Campus Puerto Vallarta, which has given us a cubicle to work in as well as students that are doing social service, to scan and help us catalog the photographs.
Unidos para la Conservación, A.C.
And the October Hill Foundation which has contributed financially to our cause.
Today, our FIBB catalog has photographs of tails of Humpback whales in our bay from 1996 to 2006 divided as follows:
991 identified individual whales and 1,299 recaptures (whales that have been photographed in the past in our bay).
This is tremendous effort from everyone’s part, provided we don’t have financial support from our government and we have to sell photographs to be able to finance this project.
Hats off to all of our clients-friends that have paid for a ticket to come on our tours and help us that way, to go out and be able to photograph these whales.
Astrid told me that the photographs that she was going to get from us will only be used in the catalog and that it was not going to be used for commercial benefit of any of our business.
This was the main reason that convinced me to join this project.
So we thought it was a great idea and if we were going to trust anybody with our work, that person was Astrid and we immediately got on board and have started to contribute to the Banderas Bay photo ID project.
At the beginning there were seven companies participating, Astrid Frisch of Ecotours; Isabel Cárdenas and Hugo Brodziak of Open Air Expeditions; Biologist Roberto Moncada of Instituto Tecnológico del Mar #6 (ITMAR), now ITBB; Biologist Sherman Hernández of the Centro Regional de Investigación Pesquera (INP); Oscar Frey of Ocean Friendly; Ricardo Farkas, Carlos Oliveira, Tyania Diffin, Christel Reimnick and Octavia Jolley of Vallarta Adventure and of course Alfredo Herrera of Discover Pacific Tours.
We also have the support of the University of Guadalajara, Department of Sciences, Campus Puerto Vallarta, which has given us a cubicle to work in as well as students that are doing social service, to scan and help us catalog the photographs.
Unidos para la Conservación, A.C.
And the October Hill Foundation which has contributed financially to our cause.
Today, our FIBB catalog has photographs of tails of Humpback whales in our bay from 1996 to 2006 divided as follows:
991 identified individual whales and 1,299 recaptures (whales that have been photographed in the past in our bay).
This is tremendous effort from everyone’s part, provided we don’t have financial support from our government and we have to sell photographs to be able to finance this project.
Hats off to all of our clients-friends that have paid for a ticket to come on our tours and help us that way, to go out and be able to photograph these whales.
It was estimated that before their exploitation by the whaling industry, the population of Humpback whales in the north pacific was between 15,000 and 20,000 individuals (Rice 1978). After the whale hunt moratorium only between 1200 and 1400 of them remained.
Recent studies estimate the population of Humpback Whales in the Gulf of California to about 2000 of them.
The population referred to as “the coastal stock” which is distributed along the Mexican Coast Line (Banderas Bay, Chamela, Isabel Island, and The Marias Islands) and also by the whales distributed in the waters around the Baja California Peninsula, from Bahía Magdalena in the West Coast to the Bay of La Paz in the Gulf of California, was estimated in 1992 to be 1,813 individuals (918-2,505) (Urbán 2001).
In 2004 Frisch estimated that the population of Humpback whales in Banderas Bay could be between 750 and 2,200 individuals.
The data base provided by the FIBB Catalog could contribute to our knowledge and conservation of the Humpback Whale.
The number of photographs contributed by each participant are as follows:
Open Air Expeditions 289; INP 132; Discover Pacific Tours 335; Ecotours 639; Ocean Friendly 308; Vallarta Adventure; 474.
Recent studies estimate the population of Humpback Whales in the Gulf of California to about 2000 of them.
The population referred to as “the coastal stock” which is distributed along the Mexican Coast Line (Banderas Bay, Chamela, Isabel Island, and The Marias Islands) and also by the whales distributed in the waters around the Baja California Peninsula, from Bahía Magdalena in the West Coast to the Bay of La Paz in the Gulf of California, was estimated in 1992 to be 1,813 individuals (918-2,505) (Urbán 2001).
In 2004 Frisch estimated that the population of Humpback whales in Banderas Bay could be between 750 and 2,200 individuals.
The data base provided by the FIBB Catalog could contribute to our knowledge and conservation of the Humpback Whale.
The number of photographs contributed by each participant are as follows:
Open Air Expeditions 289; INP 132; Discover Pacific Tours 335; Ecotours 639; Ocean Friendly 308; Vallarta Adventure; 474.
I personally would like to thank Norma & Ray Hammett and Frank and Shiley Todd from Trenton, MO; Jerry & Charlotte Shull from Kansas City, MO; Ed & Teresa Abussaffy from Edmonton Alberta; Sandra Leonard from Hacienda Mosaico in Puerto Vallarta and many, many more friends for their invaluable help in this project. To all of you my most sincere thanks.
