The first Fin whales in 2014

Text: Carina Doll, photos: firmm

It’s Tuesday afternoon, the sun is shining brightly and there is almost no breeze. Everybody is eagerly awaiting the return of the „Spirit” to the harbour, so that we can also leave for our tour to search for whales and dolphins. Above the harbour wall a slightly dark shading appears, which moves slowly to the harbour entrance. Just a few seconds later there she is, the „Spirit“ in her full splendour.

With a broad grin Edeltraud jumps from the boat and hurries towards me. I take her radiant face for a good sign, and so it is indeed: one Sperm whale, almost at the same time Bottlenose dolphins, Pilot whales and then they even saw a Fin whale. Though the Pilot whales really behaved strangely today. They moved in different sized groups with high speed in direction Atlantic, it almost seemed as if they were defending their territory. Later, to our great amazement fishermen verified that they saw Orcas far out in the Atlantic.

As the crowning end of Edeltrauds trip they even observed a second Fin whale on their way back to the harbour!
Two Fin whales!! Those are the first Fin whales of the season! Almost a bit disappointed that I haven’t been on that trip too, but with huge expectations that we are also going to see Fin whales, I board the boat.

The sea is calm and the passengers enjoy the atmosphere and the nice weather in the Strait of Gibraltar. I am almost getting a bit impatient because I really want to see Fin whales, as I have never seen one before. Suddenly Striped dolphins appear. With their graceful and quick movements they move through the sea parallel to the boat. Suddenly, all of them nearly simultaneously turn around and with an enormous speed all in a line, they rush back in direction of the Mediterranean Sea. Katharina explains us later that this is a typical hunting behaviour of the Striped dolphins and for that reason they swam away in such a hurry. Still impressed with the speed these little dolphins can reach, I am suddenly pulled out of my thoughts. The boat changes its course, gets faster and through the loudspeakers we hear Katharina’s voice. „ A Fin whale blow! “Far away, near Tarifa. The visitors get more nervous and all look concentrated in the direction in which the Fin whale blow was announced.

  

The nearer we get the more clearly I can detect a slight fountain that shoots out of the water again and again. Internally I am feeling really edgy. Hopefully we are there just in time!
And there he reappears, just in front of us; the Fin whale in all his magnificence. The boat turns parallel to him, so that we are able to follow him at the same speed. Enormous how big a Fin whale is! When he is swimming alongside, you can’t even see his full body, only when he is slowly surfacing, showing his seemingly endless back, you are beginning to realize that he is the second largest animal in the world.

  

„A second Fin whale!“ The voice of Katharina pulls me out of my dreams. Unbelievably, shortly afterwards, a third Fin whale appeared next to the others. All three are swimming together in direction of the Atlantic and merely 25 meters away from the boat. An incredible spectacle! The smallest is swimming between the bigger ones. During the whole time one surfaces, another dives down and sometimes we can even see all of them together at the surface.

  

Since the surfacing of the Fin whales it is quiet on the boat. The visitors are silent. Everybody is watching these fascinating creatures as if spellbound. We hardly dare to breathe or to make other noises, to not frighten the whales away.

Further and further we follow the Fin whales, join them on their way until we are already out in the Atlantic.
We reached almost the height of the dune of Punta Paloma. Now we have to leave the Fin whales and return back to the harbour.

The Fin whales are getting smaller and smaller, Tarifa is getting bigger. The visitors exchange their opinions about the spectacular experience and let their gaze wander over the sea. Maybe it’s possible to see yet another Fin whale? Back in the harbour, I look into the bright and happy faces of the visitors and say goodbye to them, myself also entirely thrilled about my first Fin whales.