Marine Life and Other Creatures at Tenacatita

February 20, 2025  

There is an amazing amount of life in this anchorage, with the Humpback whales, Dolphins, Carvel Jacks, Flying fish, Pelicans, and Frigate birds, and there are not many days that we don’t see something interesting while at anchor. 

One morning while we were on board we had a humpback whale come and slowly swim its way through the anchorage surfacing several times not far from our boat.  Unfortunately this was while the water clarity was very poor so there was no hope of seeing it underwater, but it was still very cool to have it surfacing so close and to hear its loud breathing.   

It is not uncommon for us to have a couple of dolphins in the anchorage, usually it seems to be a pair, but one morning there was just one very large dolphin.  Jason called Falcon and I up from breakfast to see it as it was coming close to our boat.  Falcon and I got up into the cockpit in time to see it surface beside us and then next thing we knew if jumped fully out of the water not more than 20 feet away.  It was amazing to see it so clearly and so close, and Falcon got very excited saying “another, another” hoping that it would do it again. The next day there were two dolphins in the anchorage, and as we kayaked to the beach they came over towards us and surfaced quite close.   

Now that we can see into the water below our boat it is often like looking into a super active aquarium.  We have a school of small fish that seem to live below us and the Carvel Jack predator fish are frequent visitors.  Sometimes there is a school of at least 20 or more Carvel Jack that come by circling our boat and using it to corral the small fish.  They attack the small fish right around us causing a frenzy of action beside and underneath us.  Sometimes we hear a loud thunk when seemingly one of the Carvel Jack fish hit our hull.  It is amazing to be able to stand on the deck and watch so clearly as the predator fish make their move.  Sometimes we are in swimming off of the swim grid while they come by, and they are not scared at all.  They will usually come by very close to check us out as we swim.  Falcon loves to watch them from up on deck and always points them out when he sees them, “Big Carvel Jack in water around boat.” he will say.  We have spoken with other people who were actually woken up in the morning by the sound of the Carvel Jack hitting their hull.   

One day on our way over to La Manzanilla for some groceries we saw a lot of flying fish.  It was a beautiful glassy calm morning as we cruised along over the swells, and we could see the lines left at the surface of the water from the Flying fish fleeing beneath the surface as we approached.  At first we did not know what was causing the lines, but then we saw some fly ahead of us and we figured it out.  As we made the crossing we saw a lot flying off to the side of the tender as we approached.  They were not very big, only about four inches long, but it was interesting that seemingly they had just arrived into the area as we had not seen any here until that day.  That night, around dusk, we saw a lot of them flying around the anchorage and around our boat as the predator fish made their move.  It was so amazing to watch them fly, as they are such a neat fish.   

That night when we shone a light into the water we not only saw Needlefish, but also Flying fish.  I had never seen flying fish in the water before, it was quite neat to watch them cruising around beside our boat with their wings out.  Since that day it has been a regular sight to see Flying fish in the anchorage, as well as on our trips to town.   

One evening we spotted a humpback whale out from the anchorage.  We watched her blows and then she breached.  She then proceeded to breach over and over, at least five times and then switched to doing spy hops, coming straight up out of the water with more than half of her body.  We watched as she did it over and over, and then when she had finished we watched as she swam closer to the anchorage.  At this point we noticed that there was a little blow and a little fin that was coming up more regularly.  The baby humpback whale and its mother swam towards the anchorage and actually came right in, in between our boat and another boat that was out further.  We watched as the baby made frequent visits to the surface, and then once every few blows from the baby the mother would come up and breath, and then they would be at the surface together before diving back down.  It was very cool to see.   

On another evening we had two adult humpback whales come into the anchorage and swim along in between boats that were anchored further out from us.  They must have been fairly close to the boats as we could see the boats rocking around from the waves made as the whales surfaced and then later turned around.   

Some days there is an amazing amount of bird action in this anchorage as well.  One day in particular Falcon and I were at the beach with another family who have a four-year old girl.  She loves the water as much as Falcon does so we were all out in the shallows where the lagoon river meets the sea.  The tide was low and there were a lot of Pelicans and Frigate birds around after the schools of fish that were in the shallows.  Many times the birds suddenly jumped into action and were diving and catching fish right around us.  As the birds went after the fish, the fish would flee and come flying past us all around our feet.  One time I actually had two fish that ran into my ankles as they hurried past and one of them hit at such speed that it actually hurt.  It is always amazing to watch such large, graceful, prehistoric-looking birds at work.