Whale Spotting
I Went Whale Spotting at the end of June 2025. Here’s a few things I learned :)
You can spot whales from land or sea and either on a fixed route or going to find them. The short specific whale spotting you tend to find on holidays is going to see them. ts probably going to get you closer and in a much shorter time. It is however limited to closer in shore so you won’t often see some of the deeper water whales and dolphins. Swimming with whales and dolphins is at best controversial - how would you feel if a Whale turned up and started waving at you whilst you were taking your kids out for a walk?
The fixed route stuff that organisations like Orca do is more scientific in that they can map whale sightings over time for many years - giving a good sample of whats out there. You can look at the maps at orca.org.uk to see what they’ve sighted over 30 years so you know what to look out for on your trip.
Fixed routes are not in general going to get you as close - our ship deck was 24 metres up - as the specific and much smaller spotting boats. That said you can see some of the deeper going whales on the high seas and they can (like the Fin Whale above) be very big.
Types of dolphins and whales will not always be easy to tell apart - size is hard on the high seas with nothing else around. The experienced spotters from organisations like Orca can’t always tell so don’t worry :)
This is a handy book giving you a spotters guide and what to look for - seeing those things on a moving ship, in a short time in less than ideal conditions is a real skill!
I went spotting in the Bay of Biscay which even in summer has very variable weather! On the way out the ship speed and the wind speed tend to add - making at a stiff breeze at minimum. On the way back it can subtract. So take a hat a clothes for that wind - coats and bobble hats in summer!
You are going to need to be on deck for a long time for this regular ship based spotting - I was there for the best part of 2 days. Inevitably you’ll go to get food or something at the wrong moment. I did as I was in the bar for our first whale sighting but I was lucky that the whole side of the ship moved to the windows so I knew something was up!
You’ll see a lot of pictures of whales ‘breaching’ where they leave the water and jump up looking spectacular. In general though they don’t do this - they come up for air and some will blow spectacularly, some won’t. Some types rest on the surface for a bit but in general you are going to see part of the whale not all of it. Dolphins on the other hand often like to jump right out of the water and follow ships - I saw them jumping across our wake either side of the ship a few times. That a is a good place to look for dolphins.
Spotting is tricky as you’ve got a ocean to cover either side of the boat. Be ready to move quickly but not running to the other side if someone spots there. Binoculars can be handy if you wan to focus on a particular area but they can make you miss most of the ocean - ideally this is a team sport with some folks scanning withe their eyes and some with binoculars or cameras.
24 metres up you are going to need a big zoom for photos - I was up at 800mm most of the time and they still could look small in the frame. Forget tripods and such - they just get in the way and make your luggage more awkward.