Not sure where this should go, North Coast? North East Coast? Trip Review? Environmental?
Ah, well, the whales are living in DR too...
Went whale watching on Monday with Kim. Had a great time, very well organised trip and very informative commentary. I got some nice shots and we got some good views of two pairs of mother & calves. One pair were very happy to be viewed, the other took a dive and swam a good distance away, so they weren't watched as closely.
The initial pair though actually surfaced very close to the boats.
Anyway, the point of the post. I've commented a few times that people should avoid the 'speed boat' type tours because of the way they conduct themselves, based upon how they were when we went on a 'speed boat tour' in the past. Well, I'm delighted to say that from what I saw this week, the behaviour of the speedboat guys is much improved. In the past there was almost a free for all to get as close as possible to the whales and they often travelled flat out to get close. This week, while there were still times when they appeared to be travelling (to my untrained eye) a bit too fast from one sighting to the next, once near a sighted whale, they waited in turn and observed the correct distances etc. The photo above shows the whale that close because it chose to surface there, those boats were in neutral at the time.
All in all, I'd still recommend Kim's tour because it is so informative and the observation deck enables you to see further, also there is shade on both decks, which you haven't got on a speedboat, but I'll stop complaining about the other boats behaviour now that I've seen such (welcome) improvements.
If you've not been and you get the chance, get out there and see these lovely animals!
Ah, well, the whales are living in DR too...
Went whale watching on Monday with Kim. Had a great time, very well organised trip and very informative commentary. I got some nice shots and we got some good views of two pairs of mother & calves. One pair were very happy to be viewed, the other took a dive and swam a good distance away, so they weren't watched as closely.
The initial pair though actually surfaced very close to the boats.
Anyway, the point of the post. I've commented a few times that people should avoid the 'speed boat' type tours because of the way they conduct themselves, based upon how they were when we went on a 'speed boat tour' in the past. Well, I'm delighted to say that from what I saw this week, the behaviour of the speedboat guys is much improved. In the past there was almost a free for all to get as close as possible to the whales and they often travelled flat out to get close. This week, while there were still times when they appeared to be travelling (to my untrained eye) a bit too fast from one sighting to the next, once near a sighted whale, they waited in turn and observed the correct distances etc. The photo above shows the whale that close because it chose to surface there, those boats were in neutral at the time.
All in all, I'd still recommend Kim's tour because it is so informative and the observation deck enables you to see further, also there is shade on both decks, which you haven't got on a speedboat, but I'll stop complaining about the other boats behaviour now that I've seen such (welcome) improvements.
If you've not been and you get the chance, get out there and see these lovely animals!
Thank you !