Whale Watching

Yesterday, Brian and Sabina organized a special discounted Peace Corps/ JYCA whale watching day. Tonga is a great place to see whales (mostly humpback and pilot) in the spring as they are migrating south with their new calves, and I was so excited to spend a day on the boat and see the whales up close! In Tongan you’re allowed to swim in the water with the whales, provided you observe certain guidelines and are going out with a licensed operator, so before we got to the boat we met at the dive shop and got fitted up in wet suits and snorkel gear. Sadly, all of the old Japanese volunteers are leaving (2 in the next week, and the third in November), and were all busy packing and preparing, but a new volunteer, Koitchi (I definitely spelt that wrong- sorry!) just arrived and he joined up on our trip.

We, Brian, Sabina, Kate, Brett, Phil, Sarah, Koitchi, and I, pulled out of the wharf and almost immediately spotted a mother humpback whale and her baby. We followed them for a while until it looked like we could get in with them. All of the girls jumped in and we started swimming toward the whales, but the mother was a bit skittish and they started swimming away. Looking above the surface of the water we could see their backs and dorsal fins when they lifted them out of the water, and there were just beautiful. Beautiful and ridiculously large. Clearly, we were no match for them once they started swimming, and they quickly got out of range, so we jumped back in the boat and started following them again. We went in two more times until finally we were able to see them briefly under water, before they swam away. It was amazing.

Koitchi and Brian brought their fishing rods with them, and as we set off to try to find more whales who might want to play they started trolling their lines. After a while, Koitchi caught a huge beautiful red grouper, which Brian clubbed to death with a hammer, and it was then we decided to stop for lunch. Since we were fishing as well as whale watching we didn’t have time to land on one of the small islands to eat, so we just set everything up in the boat. Sabina had made a pasta salad, Kate and Brett and Phil had all brought cookies, and Koitchi cut up part of the fish for us to eat raw with some soy sauce.

We kept an eye out for whales the rest of the day, but didn’t spot any more. We did stop a few times to listen to them though. Brian has a special microphone that you can put underwater and it picks up the whales’ songs. We sat still for a good while just listening, and for me, that was the best part of the day. Definitely a huge perk, living in the middle of the ocean, and I hope I can spot a few offshore in the next month while they are still around.