From June to October humpback whales migrate to the tropics where the females give birth in the protected lagoons. We were lucky to see many of these impressive creatures from anchorages in Tahiti and even more here in Huahine. Yesterday a group of three whales (2 adults, 1 baby) came through the pass into the lagoon just off Fare and as we are anchored just on the edge of the sandy shelf next to the pass they swam past Pitufa within a few metres. There was quite some activity on the radio with crews from anchored boats alerting each other of the nature spectacle going on in our next vicinity. Everybody was watching awestruck from their decks despite a squall that arrived almost together with the whales, 2 dinghies buzzed towards them keeping a respectful distance to the giants. We couldn’t believe our eyes when a large catamaran with lots of crew steamed in through the pass and headed straight for the group of humpbacks without even slowing down. The whales dove out of sight immediately, but when they emerged again the cat went after them again and thus chased them out of the lagoon. For us it was incredible to watch such irresponsible behaviour as you’d expect at least some awareness from people cruising (or chartering) here.
(click for larger picture)
