Snorkeling w wales

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Mon 18 Aug 2014 07:39
The humpback whales come to Tonga from Antarctica to mate and breed in the warmer water.
Today we spent almost the whole day snorkeling with a mother and a calf
To do that you have to go with a certified operator/guide.
And Beluga Diving did a great job. They were very concerned, avoided stressing the wales and had us swim to them instead of riding the boat close.
They also look at the behavior to see that we do not interfere with the calf feeding for instance.
A calf eats about 70 litres per day!  The calf we followed was believed to be 3 months and weigh 1-2 tons, the mother about 5 tons....
The cow is pregnant for 12 months before giving birth.












Even just seeing them close by the surface is amazing, then  you get ready




Slip into the water and swim like crazy


Getting closer....

And there they are!


And then they just make one small movement with their fin and off they go into the blue, you go up and wait and then they come up somewhere else, you go there and so on...

Andreas was VERY impressed, Erika thought it was unreal and so did I....


On the way home we stopped by a cave that we actually visited with our own boat last year