Pros pick the top spots to see earth's biggest mammals
Thar she blows! Nature lovers armed with cameras are searching the seven seas for the ultimate photograph of Earth's largest mammals.
After being hunted to the brink of extinction, some whale populations now almost have their head above water. "The blue whale numbers off California have increased dramatically," says Bernardo Alps, trips coordinator for the American Cetacean Society. "Humpback and southern right whales populations have gone up too." Though he cautions that of these three, southern right whales are the only one to attain a conservation status above threatened.
See our slideshow of The World's Best Whale Watching.
It seems everyone with a boat and a pair of binoculars is offering whale-watching tours. Some operators, like many in Canada's Bay of Fundy, go so far as to guarantee sightings or you ride for free another day. With passenger expectations heightened by the Discovery Channel, many guests want more than just a glimpse of a far off dorsal fin.
Steve Miliken
Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch, Cape Cod
Regina Asmutis-Silvia
Senior biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Bernardo Alps
Travel coordinator for the American Cetacean Society
Kerry Zobor
Vice president of consumer media for the World Wildlife Fund
Richard Hocking
Curator of the Alaska Sea Life Center
How close were you? What did they do? What species were they? These are three questions often asked of whale-watching customers. Put simply, cetaceans fall into two main categories: toothed whales (like orcas that prey on big game) and baleen whales (who gobble massive amounts of small fish or crustaceans). When it comes to tourism, size and showmanship are all important—and that means humpbacks.
"They're very gregarious and have quite predictable behavior," says Regina Asmutis-Silvia, senior biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. "They have shorter dive times. They're also extremely curious animals who will investigate their surroundings. Occasionally they'll even come over and check out a whale-watching boat." Much of the industry is built around migration patterns of these 80,000-pound entertainers
Not all whales migrate, but the ones that do put on show-stopping performances every season. Picking the perfect whale-watching vacation essentially means choosing between watching the breeding or feeding. Migratory whales like humpbacks, minke and grey whales gorge themselves in abundantly rich waters near the South and North poles, then head to the equator to mate while living off their blubber reserves. (For baleen whales, the tropics offer virtually nothing to eat.)
See our slideshow of The World's Best Whale Watching.
Cold polar waters are a different story altogether. "If the food is near the surface you can see amazing open mouth feeding, kick feeding and fish corralling," says Asmutis-Silvia. "In the tropics there is great visibility in the clear water but the whales are often less active. Because they're not eating they tend to spend a little more time at the surface."
In terms of behavior, it's the airborne antics like fluking (lifting the tail to dive) and breaching (jumping clean out of the water) that make for the perfect picture. "Humpbacks are more likely to breach and tend to fluke when they dive," says Asmutis-Silvia. "They are a fairly bulky shape so we think humpbacks need that extra push to get down into the water because, at the equator, after they've lost all that weight in the breeding grounds, they no longer fluke. Look at the more hydrodynamic whales like fin whales or minke whales—they just arch their tails and sink."
According to Alps, big size doesn't equal a big personality either. "The largest of the cetaceans like blue whales and fin whales don't exhibit as many surface behaviors. They approach boats but they tend to just swim towards it and dive under," he says. (Maybe it's not such a bad thing when you consider how much water a 200-ton blue whale would displace on re-entry.) "But when the conditions are right you can still see them lunge feeding," says Alps.
If the prospect of being drenched by an overweight whale seems a little daunting, there are plenty of vantage points from land. In our list of remarkable whale-watching destinations we included the best of both worlds: short boat rides for seafaring folk and deep coastal waters for landlubbers. To observe natural behavior Asmutis-Silvia prefers to keep her feet on solid ground. "Land-based viewing is less intrusive so what you're witnessing is a completely natural behavior. With boats they sometimes get stressed out and stop behaving normally," she says.
Compiling our list of greatest whale watching destinations wasn't easy. "It's very difficult to narrow it down to ten," says Alps. "Is Baja just one destination? For the grey whale, the Sea of Cortez is just as amazing as the West Coast." We consulted experts from the World Wildlife Fund, American Cetacean Society, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and whale-watching captains from as far away as Iceland and Australia. We focused on migratory whales for their showmanship. Some experiences, like watching nursing grey whales, are gentle and awe inspiring; others, like seeing orcas take down sea lions, are raw and terrifying. All, however, offer photo-ops worthy of any Oscar-winning wildlife documentary.
By trading harpoons for Hassleblads, maybe one day whale numbers will return to normal levels—though it's hard to image the novelty of seeing them ever wearing off.