Whale Watching

Plus bonus sea life spotting

This photo and the other whale photos are borrowed from Paul on the Mozambique Horse Safari instagram; we did not get very nice photos of the whales, but made up for that with photos of other things!

Every year between the months of July and October, the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) migration takes place. The whales come from colder waters to calf in the warm Indian Ocean. Not only is it a warmer place for the babies to begin their lives, it is also safer because there are fewer predators to be found in these waters (orcas are especially known to prey on baby humpback whales, and while the occasional miniature killer whale has been spotted here, they are few in number.)

What this means for us is that it is currently whale watching season. Living in the shelter of the Bazaruto Archipelago, we have a natural separation (the islands) between us and the deep sea, meaning we can’t see whales from the beach. But, if we travel just a little, we can. Last month we stayed in Xai-Xai, almost 500km south, on our way back from South Africa. There, we caught our first glimpse of the whales, leaping and pirouetting on the distant horizon. We watched them from our balcony while chasing the local vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) away from our dinners.

This is not the same vervet, but here is a photo of one I took recently so you know what I am talking about. It’s amazing to be able to see both whales and monkeys at once!

More recently, we went on a whale watching trip in Vilankulo with our friends who have a boat. We drove out past the islands to the deep sea, and there you can see whales everywhere. Closer to the islands, we followed a mother and calf who were slowly coming up for air, going back down, coming up again, going back down. These were so close to us that when they blew, we could smell them - a salty, briny scent like pure ocean blown into your face. Jay speculated that it could be the mother’s milk we were smelling, salty from her krill diet.

In the far distance we could see huge full grown whales jumping up out of the water, some so far we could only see them from the haze of white spray they sent up with their splashes. We headed out to sea to get a closer look, but on our way were intercepted by a huge pod of spinner dolphins, (Stenella longirostris), maybe 70 strong, and rather than racing away, they played with the boat for a while. We were sitting on the front of the boat and had a perfect view of them twisting, diving, and spinning through the waves. They, like the whales, also had babies, and it was interesting to watch the adults shepherding the young ones away from the boat, keeping them from getting too close. Occasionally a more curious dolphin would jump up near our dangling toes, trying to figure out what we were. It was such an amazing experience to have a super pod right in front of us, interacting with us and the boat, for so long - truly breathtaking.

Here you can see one of the babies jumping up on the right.

As we carried on we got even luckier - a huge adult humpback breached right in front of us, coming up out of nowhere in a spectacular mid air turn. This went beyond my highest hopes for the day. Humpback acrobatics are incredible, showing off both the grace and breadth of the huge whales.

To top everything off, we had a special sighting of Christina, the resident dugong (Dugong dugon):

Here she is poking her nose out for a breath. The dugong is an endangered species, making up the fourth type of three species (the other three being manatees) in the Sirenia order. We have the last viable population of these gentle creatures here in the Bazaruto Archipelago. Also known as sea cows, they graze along the seagrass beds in the shallow waters near the coasts and islands. They are not easily spotted, so seeing Christina was a special moment.

We ended the day on our friends’ yacht - what a fabulous weekend!

Stay tuned for more whale action next week!