Mexico
Cabo San Lucas: Marine Wildlife at Land’s End
February 2008
Cabo San Lucas lies at the southern end of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, where the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, meets the Pacific Ocean. At Land’s End, marine erosion has shaped a series of rocky headlands that includes El Arco, the natural sea arch visible in these 2008 photographs.
The photographs also document humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) surfacing and raising their flukes offshore, California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) resting along the rocky coast, and brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis). Humpback whales belonging to the Mexico population breed along the Pacific coast of Mexico, travel past the Baja California Peninsula, and feed farther north from California to Alaska.
The marine environment surrounding the cape is protected within the Cabo San Lucas Flora and Fauna Protection Area, first established in 1973. Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo are the two principal urban centers of Los Cabos, connected by the approximately 33-kilometer (20-mile) Tourist Corridor.
