Have You Tried The Spectacular Dolphin and Whale Holiday
Whale and dolphin watching is a thriving tourist industry, bringing in over $1.25 billion a year and whisking more than 10 million curious travelers around the vast oceans of the world. Whether you’re visiting Boston, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Mexico or the Caribbean islands, you can add a whale watching cruise to your itinerary to get a closer look at these amazing animals.
In the past, many species of whales had been hunted to near-extinction, but thanks to conservation efforts, they are making a wonderful comeback and the blues were recently removed from the endangered list. Here are some of the whales you might encounter in your research.
The humpback whale is one of the most common creatures spotted when whale watching. There are about 30,000 to 40,000 humpbacks in the wild today, which makes up about 30 to 35% of the overall population. In the summer, they frequent New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Iceland, California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Antarctica. In the winter, they migrate to warmer climes like the Dominican Republic’s Samana Province, France’s Bay of Biscay, Hawaii, Mexico’s Puerto Vallarta, Australia and New Zealand, Cape Town, Costa Rica and the Tongan Islands.
Humpback whales are especially exciting to see during their breeding season, when up to forty males may gather to court one female with tail-lobbing, breaching several feet in the air, tail-slapping, spy-hopping, peduncle throwing and charging.
On your next whale and dolphin watching trip, you may also encounter gray whales. These great migrators have been known to travel up to 12,430 miles in their pods from Alaska in the summer to Mexico in the winter. Most gray whale watching enterprises are stationed between Monterey and San Diego, as they migrate down to Baja, California to breed and give birth.
Grays used to be the most intimidating whales to hunt because these “devil fish” seemed unafraid to charge humans when they felt threatened. Grays were removed from the endangered species list in 1994 and now number around 26,000.
The whale watching season varies from place to place, depending on the migratory pattern of the whales. For instance, Southern California offers the best glimpses of the migrating humpbacks from December through March. In spring, summer and fall, tourists clamor to Northern California ports like Monterey Bay and San Francisco.
Southwest Pacific whales can be seen around Australia from May to November. In New England, the season runs from mid-spring through October. There seems to be no real “season” for warmer coastal waters in Thailand and the Caribbean Sea, yet whale and dolphin watching opportunities are plentiful all year round.
About the Author
Dave Green is actually a regular vacationer and likes visits all over the world. Whilst on his trips, David enjoys writing about his vacations in real time, to catch his environment and encounters in real time.
David has just finished a article about Rv travelling in the USA, the article is titled RV Rentals USA and describes the two weeks David and his companion were RVing in Texas, USA. For a lot more material about RV holidays and the Class B Motor Home, please visit http://rvrentalsusa.org/ for more information.