An August full of Orcas and Fin Whales

Text: Brigitte, photos: firmm

The Orcas did not show up this season until the 25th of July. Or rather, due to the strong Levante, we could only do trips on 8 days in July until that date. The fishermen were also absent during these high waves and so the Orcas were perhaps " undetected". Anyway, on this special Monday we were happy that they were finally around.

Mostly there were between 7 and 9 animals. There were no known Orcas present this year. We saw mostly females with offspring, but it could also be that there was a young male among them. Young males don't yet have the impressive dorsal fin that characterises adult male Orcas, so it is not so easy to recognise them. Females have lower fins that are more curved. We observed some juveniles. On the 15th of August, we even saw a baby that was still showing its yellow colour.

On the same day, we watched a young one chasing a tuna on a fishing rod. In the end, the fishermen won that day, not the Orcas. The tuna lost in any case.

The Orca season ended this year on the 22nd of August. We were able to watch the beautiful black and white dolphins on eight days.

In August the Fin Whales almost stole the show from the Orcas. In the last few weeks, we had an unusually high number of sightings. Predominantly we encountered 1-2 animals. We observed the most on the 11th of August. On the penultimate trip of the day, we spotted already two Fin Whales. On the way back to the harbour, our captain Antonio discovered five animals heading for the Mediterranean. We therefore hurried back on the last tour, and indeed, about half a mile off Tarifa we spotted the baleen whales again. We followed them, they came quite close and so we could marvel at the full size of these imposing animals.

From the end of July to the end of August we were able to observe Fin Whales on 14 days and on 20 trips.

Again, the beautiful photos speak for themselves.