Introduction to Whale Watching
Or perhaps Whale and Dolphin Watching
This is a collection of various articles about attempts at Whale and/or Dolphin watching in various locations, which will hopefully serve as an introduction to those who have yet to try it.
It is not the images you can see on the TV in the comfort of your own home. A long way from it.
Iceland
Iceland
My article about our trip to Iceland in 2003 can be read here.
Part of our second visit to Iceland, in 2003 included a pre-booked Whale Watching trip out of Húsavík, an old whaling port. Fortunately, they have swapped killing whales to watching them. Both require the skillset of being able to find them.
I have not found any photos of my own from Húsavík at the moment. So I have gone to Google Maps Streetview.
It was a little foggy as we drove out of the mountains. Not the clear view above.
Not us!
Their view of the harbour as they waved at the Google Camera Car.
Ours was not so good. We saw no boats.
This is the same image with some editing, followed by some AI generated fog, and finished in Paint 3D.
An interpretation of our experience of the harbour. The thick fog obscured the boats. We were careful driving along the harbour edge, not wishing to go swimming.
We found our meeting place and not surprisingly were told that sailing would be impossible and our trip was cancelled. We went to the Whaling Museum instead, which was very good.
We did receive a full refund from Discover the World, on our return home.
Reykjavik
After we returned to Reykjavik and had given the hire car back, we had planned few days before flying home.
We walked down to the harbour in Reykjarvik and found a whale watching boat.
The weather was kinder this time, but the whales we not accommodating. We did see something in the far distance, but even the crew did not count it as a sighting. We were given a no sighting voucher, for another trip to search again free, valid for one year.
No whales for us in Iceland yet
Alaska
Alaska
Part of our 2010 Canada and Alaska Cruise and Land Cruise - Inside Passage
The above map contains tracks, in red or orange, created with a GPS recording devise.
Zoom in towards the centre of the map. There are three red tracks, that look a little like a divide sign, ÷ . One dot, towards the top, which becomes a line when zoomed in, is a walk in Skagway. The longer line in the middle is on board the cruise ship, Coral Princess in Glacier Bay
Glacier Bay
Not a whale, but a sea bird gliding alongside our cruise ship.
A small (compared to the ship), but nice looking boat.
The time stamp on the photo is 16/07/2010 00:36:56. However, the camera was probably set to GMT or BST (GMT +1).
The time difference between London and the nearby Juneau is +9 hours. Referring to the World Clock for Juneau with a - 9 hour adjustment results in a date and time of 15/07/2010 15:36:56. The time of sunset on this date is 22:05.
Before moving on from this photo, halfway between the stern of the boat and the bottom edge of the photo. There is a little black mark. Could this be just a smudge, or a sea otter floating on the surface, or a bird flying towards the left of the photo. I think it might be the latter.
Not a whale, but confirmed Sea Otters
The latter Sea Otter image above, zoomed in. More recognisable.
Two minutes after the boat and there is a sighting of a whale. This is from the cruise ship, not a whale watching boat. We had done the sail by the glaciers at the top of the bay, and were on our way to the open sea.
Such excitement.
Yes, very small, or is it very large, but far away.
The colours and lighting change according to the direction compared to that of the sun.
A blow. A sure sign of a whale just below the surface. Apparently, the height and direction of the blow can help identify the species of whale.
A whale with the residue of its blow.
Then there was three. Most defiantly a pod of whales.
Now four. Is that four more.
Then a full breach caught on camera. With other whales and a seabird. We think they were Humpback Whales.
Same image but zoomed in once.
Zoomed in some more.
Then the splash.
Out of sequence, organised Whale Watching
The day before we saw the whales from the ship we went on an organised excursion which included a dedicated boat trip, to see some whales. I am pleased to report that we were successful in that endeavour.
We set of from Juneau, the state capital of Alaska. Surprisingly, it has no road connection to the rest of the state, it sits in the Panhandle, in splendid isolation, well road wise.
The boat trip was first followed by walking through a rain forest to the foot of a glacier.
Bay of Biscay
Bay of Biscay
Canaries
Canaries
Azores
Azores
The Azores was our most recent Whale Watching trip.
We were on a Fred Olsen Cruise and the organised excursions for Whale Watching were all fully booked, both RIB and Catamaran versions. Accordingly we privately booked a trip on a catamaran at a port were we were due to have an overnight stay. We were not comfortable with the thought of a RIB for a few hours.
Unfortunately, due to a storm coming in, the itinerary was changed, and we were only spending the day in Horta.
We rushed off the ship an went to Peter Café Sport to see if we could get on the morning sailing, but it had already left, an hour before. However, they assured us that the afternoon trip would get us back in time for the ship's sail away at 7:30PM.
They were correct.
The link to the YouTube video of our Whale Watching
Fortunately, I had learnt from pervious attempts.
- Don't see life through the viewfinder of a camera. Look at life in real-time. Our eyes are marvellous and can automatically zoom in to see more than the video suggests.
- Don't try to zoom in to get the good shot, the subject has moved before you are there, ready to click / record
- Use a video to record a lot, including the action. Still camera work for whales equals lots of "that is where it was", doing back flips, or whatever.
So I held the video camera it the general direction, and recorded once we were among the pod.
The post video stills give a slightly better image, but still not TV documentary. They do have bigger budgets and much longer, sometimes years, to catch the images they want. So that is OK.