Whale meet again.

[capnsensible]

This year, I've never seen so many whales. Ever. I've been lucky enough to transit around quite a bit of the deep blue sea over the last few, well awright, then, quite a few years and have seen the occasional whale.

Rarely. But now, for some reason unknown to me, well, there are lots about. They are appearing in places I've sailed before and never encountered them.

Bit spooky when a large lumbering gert big lump of nature surfaces just a few feet away and gives that biig Pwoosh blow and a big eye. Love it but.....wow, bit disconcerting.

Has anyone else been seeing this? Is there some reason that there are so many about?

Must say that it's not just whales but Dolphins seem to be everywhere too.

Is it worth a sightings thread? Must say I'm enjoying their visits. Yay.

 

[westhinder]

I did Belgium-Galicia and back in May-July and we saw plenty dolphins all the way and back. I had been hoping to see a few whales too in the Bay of Biscay, but I saw only one. Pretty impressive, but I had hoped for more.
Same story last year, Azores-Halifax, dolphins galore, but sadly no whales.
You must be very lucky.

 

[Neeves]

Whales are at almost plague numbers on Australia's East coast, heading north for our winter and the south, along with young, in the spring. We need to keep clear and they use the same passage routes as we do. They are magnificent, but scary when they appear close to - and one has no idea at night.

Whale meat, again - not likely! When I went climbing in Norway in the late 60's whale meat was all we could afford - how times change

Jonathan

 

[oldharry]

Prepping for ' so long and thanks for all the fish' time?

Saw a pod of killer whales in Jura sound earlier this year for the 1st time.

 

[capnsensible]

I did Belgium-Galicia and back in May-July and we saw plenty dolphins all the way and back. I had been hoping to see a few whales too in the Bay of Biscay, but I saw only one. Pretty impressive, but I had hoped for more.
Same story last year, Azores-Halifax, dolphins galore, but sadly no whales.
You must be very lucky.

Not sure about the luck bit, hence the post. They are impressive, aren't they but a teeny tad worrying at close quarters.

Also prompting this was seeing them in numbers on Monday and Tuesday in South Biscay. Earlier this year during a transatlantic saw dozens either side of the Azores and whilst sailing back at base..Lanzarote... Have seen three off the north east end of Fuertaventura. I'm very impressed, as I mentioned, I've never seen so many.

Quite a few whales tails on the local beaches though.......

 

[mainsail1]

I wonder why they are not called killer Dolphins?...as they are part of the Dolphin family

 

[laika]

On the downside, they’ve pushed the Henderson to the brink of extinction

 

[lpdsn]

Had some sort of whale surface about 20 feet off the bow off the Isle of Man last month. Think it got as much of a shock as I did. We were doing about 8 kts so there was a few seconds worry before enough time had passed to know it had missed the keel. I was able to show the crew the large swirl of water to prove I wasn't making it up. I don't know what type. Was too big for a basking shark or dolphin.

 

[MM5AHO]

Minke whales reported in Kyles of Bute today. Not seen so many before either.

 

[westhinder]

These people certainly met one up close and personal:

http://gcaptain.com/watch-incredible-whale-watching-close-call-in-alaska/

 

[armchairsailor]

Sailed past a pod of orcas the other day in Trimcomali Channel. Made our week on the water. Bloody magic.

I was alerted to their presence by the whale watching boats! Conversely everyone is a little worried about the residents’ numbers in my neck of the woods. All sorts of bad science and politics at play just now, which might actually affect them for the worse if “management” options are taken up.

 

[hrchivers]

At the start of August we saw a pod of Fin Whales (I think) around 100nm N of the Azores. One very close to the boat and we continued to hear and see them at increasing distance for over an hour. Yes, magic. If I have the correct type this would be late for a N migration. In the same area we started to call our towed generator 'the dolpin lure', but our best sighting of dophins was off Portland. https://youtu.be/q-ZyVCIHyko

 

[capnsensible]

Over the years I've been lucky enough to see quite a few pods of dolphins at night. They seem to stay around much longer, perhaps not feeding in the dark?

Two things. When you have bio in the sea, the bright green trails are awesome. And on the subject of green, I have ne explanation for why at night, they always seem to favour the starboard bow thus the green light? Have had them there for literally hours. Lovely.

 

[KellysEye]

We were sailing down to the Canaries and a whale came in from our port side and followed us for 15 minutes, we saw another one pass by off Dominica.