Touched: Revelations at San Ignacio Lagoon: Spirit, Science, People, Politics

Laguna San Ignacio, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, comes alive in the essays within Touched/Tocado. Michael Branch writes the essays are ＂ingeniously organized as a four-stranded narrative which deftly braids the perspectives of a poet, a cetologist, a fisherman, and an activist to offer an informative and inspiring story of how this unique whale nursery was protected and preserved.＂

ENGLISH

Laguna San Ignacio, along the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico, is one of the most extraordinary places in the world. It is the centerpiece of the Vizcaíno International Biosphere Reserve, which holds beautiful and complex stands of mangroves and dazzling assemblies of seabirds and shorebirds, their wings aglow with ocean light. Within the waters of the Lagoon thrives a full suite of marine life in all its mystery and richness. Not long ago, it was all at risk, but was conserved from ruinous development by a legendary effort of science-based conservation.

Such is the setting. The Laguna has an eminent place now not just in Mexico, not just in the Americas, but in the imagination of the world. It is the winter breeding and birthing ground of the gray whale. Just here, and nowhere else on Earth, the whales will approach a boat: they will come to be touched, to play, and to romp and frolic with their newborns, who rise to our hands with antic curiosity and affection. They bring not just themselves: they bring a new world, the one even now in creation.

Here is the Laguna. It is a place of transformative power and beauty, of wonderment of being literally in touch with so intelligent and generous a life form. This book is meant to show the whole: in four essays, it unites spirit, science, people, and activism. It is the union we can use to make a future together.

A Non-Profit Publication - Proceeds will be donated to gray whale research and programs benefitting the community of Ejido Luis Echeverría, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

ESPANOL

Laguna San Ignacio, a lo largo de la costa del Pacífico de Baja California Sur, México, es uno de los lugares más extraordinarios en el mundo. Es la pieza central de la Reserva de la Biosfera El Vizcaíno, la cual alberga hermosos manglares y deslumbrantes grupos de aves marinas y costeras, con sus alas resplandeciendo con la luz del océano. Dentro de las aguas de la laguna prospera una gama completa de vida marina, en todo su misterio y riqueza. No hace mucho, todo esto estaba en riesgo, pero fue salvado de un desarrollo ruinoso gracias al esfuerzo legendario de la conservación basada en la ciencia.

Este es el escenario. La laguna ahora tiene un lugar inminente no sólo en México, ni en América, sino en la imaginación del mundo. En invierno es la zona de reproducción y nacimiento de la ballena gris. Sólo aquí, y en ningún otro lado en la Tierra, las ballenas se acercan a los botes: se aproximan para ser tocadas, jugar y retozar con sus recién nacidas, las cuales se levantan hacia nuestras manos con mucha curiosidad y afecto. No sólo se traen a sí mismas: ellas traen un nuevo mundo, el cual aún sigue en creación.

Aquí está la laguna. Es un lugar de poder y belleza transformadora, de asombro al estar literalmente en contacto con formas de vida tan inteligentes y generosas. Este libro está diseñado para mostrar todo: en cuatro ensayos, une el espíritu, la ciencia, las personas y el activismo. Es la unidad que necesitamos para formar un futuro juntos.

Publicación sin fines de lucro. Las ganancias serán donadas a la investigación de la ballena gris y programas que beneficien a la comunidad de la laguna.

Steven Nightingale is the author of twelve books: two novels, six books of verse, a long essay about Granada, Spain; The Hot Climate of Promises and Grace, a book of short stories about extraordinary women; and most recently, a book of haiku, Incantations. He is co-author of The Paradise Notebooks, a meditation on the Sierra Nevada.

Steven L. Swartz is a 1986 graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz where he was awarded his Ph.D. under Dr. Kenneth S. Norris. He has researched and published widely on gray whales and their breeding lagoons in Baja California. From 1977 to 1982, Steven and Mary Lou Jones conducted the first systematic research of gray whales in Laguna San Ignacio. In 2006, along with Jorge Urbán Ramírez, they founded the Laguna San Ignacio Ecosystem Science Program (LSIESP) to support and encourage science-based research and monitoring of gray whales and their breeding/aggregation lagoon areas in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Steven served as a consultant to the Mexican Government’s Ministry for the Environment, Natural Resources, and Fisheries (SEMARNAP), and worked for the Ocean Conservancy (previously, the Center for Environmental Education), the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the International Whaling Commission. Steven retired from federal service in 2011 and now works as a consultant and senior scientist for non-government environmental and marine conservation organizations.

Jose (＂Pancho＂) Francisco Mayoral was born in 1972 and raised on the shores of San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja, California Sur, Mexico. In 1995 he attended a Nature Guide Training Course with RARE Conservation. Not long afterwards, he quit fishing and focused on kayak guiding in the Sea of Cortez. In 1998 he got involved with The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) as a kayaking field instructor in Baja and Alaska. Pancho got married in 2001 and lived for several years in Loreto where his two beautiful daughters, Sierra and Celeste Mayoral, were raised bilingual. In 2011 he moved to California where he worked as crew for Island Packers, transporting passengers to the Channel Islands National Park. By the end of 2011 he received his 100-ton captain license, which he still holds. When not transporting passengers to the islands, he also whale watches in the Santa Barbara Channel. In 2018 he re-engaged with the whale-watching family business, Pachico’s Ecotours, running reservations and operations during the season (pachicosecotours.com). In 2022 Pancho started Legacy Whale Tours, looking to expand on whale experiences, and by 2024 he will be offering new adventures swimming with humpback whales in Tahiti (legacywhaletours.com). His dream now is to keep looking for meaningful experiences with different species of whales in different latitudes around the world.

Richard J. Nevle is the Deputy Director of the Earth Systems Program at Stanford University and co-author of The Paradise Notebooks: 90 Miles across the Sierra Nevada. He is the author of numerous scientific articles and the recipient of the highest award for teaching excellence given by Stanford University.