By Virginia Bria
Nine members of Marin Scuba club recently visited the Silver Banks in the Dominican Republic to snorkel with the Atlantic Humpback Whales aboard the MV Turks & Caicos Explorer II with Aquatic Adventures.
This destination is the home of over 7,000 whales who migrate here yearly from as far as Norway. We spent six hours for each of five days, in and on the water, observing, photographing, filming, and documenting the behaviors of these magnificent whales during their migration to mate and give birth to their young. What a treat!
We observed breaches, mating rituals, tail slapping, spy hopping, escorts and challengers following the females to mate. We heard their grunts and songs as they endeavored to mate. We even had a few whales swim under our dinghy in pursuit.
When it was safe, we jumped in the water with our GoPros and other cameras in hand and followed them within a safe distance to see them up-close. On one occasion, we got right up on a spy hopping whale that was comfortable as we approached and remained vertically in the water right in front of us.
I photographed the flukes and dorsal fins of several whales and submitted my images to “HappyWhale.com”, a nonprofit agency and worldwide NGO that tracks the whales via citizen scientists’ submissions of their photos with their unique identification markings.
Of the many whale photos that I submitted, two were identified, one as a humpback named “Garden” and the other was unnamed. With a donation to Happy Whales, I named the whale I identified, and you can, too.
As a proud Bostonian, I named my adopted humpback as “Big Papi” in honor of the Red Sox Hall of Fame baseball player from the Dominican Republic. It was previously seen in Iceland 12 years ago. Donations go to the Guerrero Whale Project in Mexico to support whale research and protection of the whales.
After you adopt one, you can track your humpback whale, seeing where it has traveled from Iceland to the Dominican Republic. Here’s my adoptee’s page –– and check out Happy Whale to see more!
P.S.: Happy Whale continuously keeps you posted of your identified whale’s migration patterns from other members’ sitings. With a lack of funding for tagging whales which can cost up to $5,000 per tag and is not often effective, this work is a great alternative to support whale research to document whale migrations.