Baja Coast

Off the western coast of Baja California, cool water of the California Current flows south through the eastern Pacific. Far out to sea rises volcanic Guadalupe Island, separated from the peninsula by a wide stretch of ocean. Sebastián Vizcaíno's expedition sighted the island in 1602; in the early nineteenth century seal hunters and whalers reached its shores. Between the island and the mainland, the sea forms part of the long route along the Pacific side of the peninsula.