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Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) Baja California. Mexico.

Wir wandern für Wale, um die Welt zu retten

Wenn es um den Kampf gegen den Klimawandel geht, stecken wir uns ambitionierte Ziele. Zwei...
© Peter Linforth

Walschutz aus dem Weltraum

Die Satellitentechnologie ist ein Schlüssel zum Walschutz von morgen. Deshalb forschen wir an einer einzigartigen...
© Aishling Heffernan

Coral − ein Buckelwal, der sich nie unterkriegen lässt

An der einzigartigen Musterung auf Corals Schwanzflosse können wir ihn immer gut erkennen. © Anna...
© Hans Peter Roth

Eine weitere Saison in Taiji geht zu Ende

Die vergangene Jagdsaison in Taiji hat Tierschützer:innen weltweit mit schockierenden Bildern bewegt. Von September 2022...

A special encounter

Even after more than 100 whale watching trips in the same area there are still encounters that leave you speechless. Every tour is different: the weather conditions vary greatly, you never know if you will encounter any whales or dolphins and if you encounter them it’s not guaranteed that they are open for an encounter with a boat. So it is a special stroke of luck when you encounter THREE different species in glassy calm sea conditions as  happened to us on 18 December off the coast of La Gomera, Canary Islands. And as if that was not enough, our small Canary fisher boat was the only vessel in the vicinity!

First of all, we encountered a group of short-finned pilot whales, a resident species in the waters around the Canary Islands. Then our guide discovered a blow in the distance, most likely from a large baleen whale! Our last sighting of a large whale was two weeks before, a Bryde’s whale. We were very curious to find out if the blow belonged to another Bryde’s whale, or maybe a fin or sei whale? These species are difficult to tell apart if only seen briefly or from a distance. But when the whale surfaced closer to us, we were lucky enough to see the right side of the head which was almost white, meaning we had an encounter with the second-largest whale species on this planet, a fin whale. He was swimming peacefully in close proximity to the pilot whales and was accompanied by a group of bottlenose dolphins

Since 1996, it has been prohibited to swim with whales and dolphins off the Canary Islands. So if you want to take underwater footage, you either need a special permit (for a scientific study for example) or take the footage whilst remaining in the boat. I have a small action camera mounted to a tripod which I put in the water if the conditions are good and the whales or dolphins voluntarily come close to the boat. I can’t see what I’m filming so it is always a surprise to see what I have been lucky enough to capture! In this case, I was very lucky because I caught the fin whale on camera and the white right side of the head can be seen very well. 

Here, off La Gomera, you can often see short-finned pilot whales together with bottlenose dolphins but this combination, along with the fin whale, was particularly special. 

If you are planning to go on a whale watching trip during your holidays, please make sure you choose a responsible operator. You can find more information in our Guide to Responsible Whale Watching

Über Ulla Ludewig

Projektreferentin - Ulla Christina Ludewig setzt sich im deutschen und internationalen WDC-Team für die Schließung von Delfinarien und verantwortungsbewusste Wal- und Delfinbeobachtung ein.