Monterey County knows James Michael Dorsey well from his books and talks, including the ongoing “Before They Vanish” travelogue series in the Monterey Public Library the third Friday of each month through June. Dorsey has published two books based on his travels to some of the most remote places in the world, from Lapland to Burkina Faso.
But this place and this book – his third, The Lagoon: Encounters with the Whales of San Ignacio – is special. Dorsey and his wife, Irene Dorsey, chose to return to San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California each summer for over 20 years, working as volunteers.
“I like these animals,” Dorsey says about gray whales, the distinct inhabitants of the lagoon. “By now, I can identify them by their personal marks, such as birthmarks.”
San Ignacio, located on the Pacific side of Baja California, was discovered by Westerners in the mid-19th century by whaling captain Jared Poole. Like Dorsey, Poole and his brother-in-law, whaler Charles Melville Scammon, were attracted by a unique nursery of gray whales, the only such place after their Atlantic and then Pacific populations dwindled, mostly due to whaling.
Since 1988, the area has been part of the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, Mexico’s largest wildlife sanctuary. It is home not only a Pacific gray whale sanctuary – it is their last and only undeveloped nursery and breeding ground in the world. “San Ignacio is one of three isolated lagoons where gray whales come to teach their newborn calves the fine art of being a whale,” writes Dorsey, “and these lagoons are the only known places on Earth where wild animals actively seek out human contact on a regular basis. Being among the largest creatures on Earth, it is all the more spectacular.”
The Lagoon embraces the importance of fighting whaling, outlawed by the U.S. in the 1970s, but still practiced by Norway, Iceland and Japan. The book includes the natural history of Baja and calls for the protection of this precious environment.
Using Dorsey’s own words on gray whales: “They are friendly, curious, and docile. Lacking arms or hands, I believe, they simply enjoy the sensation of touch, especially being petted, because they often respond to stroking by pushing against one’s hand.”
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