We went on a whale and dolphin trip this weekend and it was one of the best yet!
We saw swarms of sea birds in a feeding frenzy with many dolphins and several Bryde’s Whales.
Later, we ran across a pod of Bottle Nose Dolphins that were very acrobatic. One gave us a show of several belly flops in front of the boat.
I have to admit, I didn’t take this last photo…I saw the dolphins do the three way jump, three times, but missed the shot. This photo was taken by the photographer on the boat.
We went on a Whale & Dolphin tour right out of Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour and saw Bryde’s Whales and dolphins on a beautiful day. I always love going on this trip as it provides a natural counter-balance to the urban environment of the city. Just a 4-5 hour round trip out into the harbour from downtown into such a different world!
I have quite a back log of photos from a few recent trips. I spent 2 weeks in Nova Scotia and a few days in the Boston area in June. In July, we had family visit and took a few trips locally, down to Rotorua, and to Wellington. Here are some photos from a whale watching trip I took with my family. We left from Lunenberg and saw Fin and Humpback Whales. The above photos are of Fin Whales, the second longest animal in the world.
Below are photos of Humpback Whales.
I hope you enjoy the photos…
The white in the photo is the large pectoral fin, with the head being to the left, under water.
We didn’t see any breaching, but there is a nice series of shots of a Humpback tail. I have found that for whale photos (as well as for a lot of wildlife) using the option of multiple photos per shot is quite helpful.
We saw a pod of Orcas, they were possibly eating sting rays in the shallows, the captain said.
The dolphins would “bow ride,” where they would race along under the boat and leap occasionally. They seemed to lose interest if we were going slow. The captain estimated we were seeing about a 1000 dolphins out feeding and he said this was a good sign for the health of the environment.
Being Fully Human 