It's Monday... Countdown to Dominica Begins

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The week begins!

This weekend I spent my days doing normal life kind of things. Repairing things, lawn care… Domestic stuff that has nothing to do with the wildlife world.

So I will stop there with the boring unrelated to why you visit this page stories… on to the good stuff.

This week is prep week. I am sorting through last-minute gear prepping for next week’s expedition to Dominica.

Dominica is such a cool island in the Caribbean. There is a freshwater river for every day of the year. At least that is what the islanders boast.

365 rivers and hot streams that pepper the island, which is really cool.

It has waterfalls and lots and lots of forests. It is a beautiful island. A must-visit kind of place.

What is exciting for me and for our friends who are joining us, is the very healthy population of sperm whales that call the waters surrounding the island home.

I am looking forward to a great week of swimming with the whales. Hoping for magic to happen.

There are several pods / families of sperm whales that call Dominica home.

Some are friendlier than others. Most seek out interactions with people. Some don’t and that is ok.

Those whales we leave alone. But the whales that do want to share time with people, those whales are true magic and moments with them is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Either way, it is going to be a great week of good friends, beautiful scenery, and a week of life- in and on the ocean with big animals.

It doesn’t get any better than that!

Have a beautiful week everyone!

Damn the Wolves!!!

Day five of our expedition, and well, it was a very slow day. We managed to see only four sperm whales, and it took all day to find them.

We tried to get in the water with them, but they wanted nothing to do with us. They were turning, changing directions, just going out of their way to avoid us. So we decided to leave them alone, it is no fun when they do that.

The last thing we see before a sperm whale drops down and disappears into the depths below.

We searched for whales, on both the North and South end of the island. We could hear them, but they were far away… too far for us to go searching for them at least. The pilot whales definitely affect their behavior, and two days later the whales are still spooked and have not returned to their hunting grounds here by the island yet.

I was googling if pilot whales eat baby sperm whales. Google said there is no proof that they do, but that their presence definitely effects the sperm whales behavior. The boys (boat crew) told us that they have seen the pilot whales attacking and harassing the sperm whales. So for me that is 100% YES!

After a full day of searching we called it a day, and headed back to port. Before we did, we jumped in for a quick snorkel at champagne reef. It was a super hot day so the water felt nice. While we were out snorkeling around, I had this good looking fish swim up to my dome port to look at itself. Well not sure if it was looking at itself, but it was definitely intrigued with my camera and followed me around for bit. I do not know the species, my buddy Rich told me what it was, but I forgot.

It was a good looking fish, beautiful colors, a sweetheart and a real treat to photograph. I love when wild animals show interesting behavior, and come in close. It is my favorite thing to experience when I am out in nature.

Well my friends, since I do not have any exciting images of whales to post for the day, I will end this blog, and hopefully have an epic ending to our adventure for you all tomorrow.

Thank you so much for reading. It means a lot to me that you do.

A Beautiful, but Tough Day at Sea.

Day Four of our sperm whale expedition off Dominica was ok. We found the sperm whales, but they are still a bit skittish from yesterday’s pilot whale visit. Most of the whales have moved out into deeper waters. A bit too far for us to follow, so we didn’t try to find them.

We did have a pod still hanging around, but this group is unknown and did not want anything to do with us. We tried a few jumps, but the animals kept their distance. We did get a few jumps in with them, but nothing like our previous days. So we decided to leave them alone and try and find a friendlier pod.

Sadly we did not have any luck.

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During the down time, our friends Tatiana and Graeme recorded some clips for a project they are working on.

We did get a few jumps in with them, but nothing like our previous days. We had some fun passes (while we were on the boat), from spotted, and Frasier’s dolphins., thats always fun. Plus we were in good company, so it was a nice day... But hoping for some better action tomorrow.

We still have two more days. Hoping the sperm whales return so we can finish up this trip with a bang.

Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.

The Wolves Are Back!!!

Day three of our expedition and everything was different. The sperm whales were not very friendly. One of the whales lifted its tail out of the water and slammed it hard on the ocean's surface. This was the first time I had seen them do that.

When it did that, I didn't overthink about it. I just excitedly grabbed my topside camera, hoping it was going to do it again. I thought it was being playful… it wasn't.

It was a warning to back off.

We, of course, find out why the sperm whales were on edge. The pilot whales were around. It was a pod of about 25-30 strong. Pilot whales are dangerous predators for baby sperm whales, so it makes sense why they behaved the way they did.

This was the reason we had so much trouble finding sperm whales during our May trip earlier this season, the pilot whales were there almost every day and the whales were spooked.

So we decided to leave the sperm whales alone and spent the rest of the day with the pilot whales, and damn, what a good day it was. They were highly social and allowed us many opportunities to see them up close.

I really like these whales. They are cool looking, and you can see them thinking when they look at you. I really wish I could understand what they were thinking because you can almost feel it when they come in close.

It was fun, and we jumped in a lot with them. The big males are the most curious, and when they come in for a look, they come in close. The moms and calves are more nervous about us and try to keep their distance.

We spent a good two hours with the whales before we called it a day. With each jump, they were getting further and further away from the island, moving into the Atlantic. Hopefully, they were just passing through and had no plans of staying. If they stay, it will make interactions with the sperm whales more challenging.

Let's just see what tomorrow brings. Until then, thanks for reading.

Day Two Was A Lot of Fun.

sperm whales poop before they dive down to the depths.

Day two on the water. It was a good day, and the weather stayed beautiful all day. I am super happy about that. We immediately found the Utensils group of sperm whales and decided to stay with this pod all day. There are quite a few pods around; some are not as friendly.

The utensils pod is one of the friendlier pods in this area, so we stayed with them, hoping that we would be treated to some epic interactions when they were done hunting for the day. Sadly the pod spent the entire day hunting, so all our interactions with the whales were very short.

It was still fun, but we are hoping for some solid interactions with the whales when they socialize. That is the stuff of dreams. The whales will play and roll and bite each other. Playfully, of course. It is a hell of a thing to witness and what I hope our guests will experience. It is pure magic when it happens.

We still have four days left, so hopefully, we will have an opportunity to see the whales interacting.

At the end of the day, we were motoring over to a whale that had just surfaced when we heard a loud bang. Sadly our motor died. A piston rod broke and tore a big hole in the engine block. So we had to have our boat towed in. She is a good little boat, and we will miss her. We will head out tomorrow on her sister ship. It is a bit bigger and slower, but she will do. As long as we find the whales, it is all good!

Heading out tomorrow a bit later in the morning to change things up and see if we can get some socializing whales. Fingers crossed.

Thank you for reading.

Dominica... Day One was a Good Day.

Sperm whale briefing before we headed out to sea.

I am back in Dominica for another week of sperm whale diving. I really like this place. I mean, what is not to like… a beautiful island with resident populations of sperm whales.

The place is HEAVEN.

Today was day one of our trip, and I am super happy to report that we had fun encounters with some friendly whales. The whales were hunting today, so we did not spend much time with them. When the whales are hunting, they go down and spend between 45 minutes to an hour at depth hunting squids. When they finally do come up, it is short.

They come up for around ten minutes, replenish their oxygen supply, and possibly help feed the youngsters in the family pod. Young sperm whales cannot go as deep as the adults, so they stay shallow, listening for sonar clicks from the adults below, to follow them around.

Sperm whales live in pods, except the males; they are solitary, or form bachelor groups. The sperm whales in a pod all help to raise the young. Each female will feed milk to any baby in their pod that is too young to hunt for themselves. It is wonderful.

The morning was fantastic. The seas were calm, and the sun was out. It was a great start. But that quickly ended when a tropical depression moved through the area in the late afternoon.. and just like that, our beautiful day ended.

Thankfully the storm passed towards the end of the day. We had a good morning with plenty of whale action in good light and pretty water. It was an excellent start to the week. We returned to port in the middle of the storm, and we all rushed to our rooms to dry up and download our images and video from today.

Day one was a success… looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

Until then, thanks for reading.

The Adventure Begins... Day One on Dominica 2022!

May 1, 2022 - Day One of Dominica was a good day. We got skunked for sperm whales, but we still had a fantastic day at sea.

We spent quite a few hours searching for sperm whales in the morning. Sadly there were no signs of any whales. No clicks on the hydrophone, no blows in the distance… nada. We did encounter a small pod of pygmy killer whales, but they disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared.

Finally, our captain saw a few dorsal fins in the distance and motored over. It was a pod of pilot whales swimming slowly along the surface. We quickly got ready and jumped in. The pod was extremely curious and came in close to look at us. I was guessing around ten individuals, turned out it was more… a lot more. We guesstimated around 20 - 25 whales in this group.

We took turns jumping in with them and had an amazing two-hour session with these beautiful whales. This was my first real-time spent with this predatory species, and I was trying to soak them in and learn as much as I could about them.

The pilot whales were swimming very slowly and in no real direction. They were all spread out, just swimming in what seemed like a big wide circle, doing random patterns. I do not know a lot, but what I am guessing and what makes the most sense to me was that they seemed be hunting.

Possibly hunting giant squid below, using sonar to detect when a squid rises from the deep, or maybe they were hunting a deep water whale, like a beaked whale or something. Not sure, but on our final jump of the day, the whales all gathered up close, and then one of them let out a whistle, and they all dove down deep and disappeared. We did not hear the whistle when we were in the water, but I captured the whistle on my gopro and the whales all dove right after. It was awesome.

We didn’t get sperm whales today, but the ocean gave us a unique and wonderful gift for our first day in Dominica. I can’t wait for tomorrow.

Today was MAGIC... Pure Magic!

August 13, 2021 - (7:03AM)
This week has been a bit more challenging to find whales. But that is the way nature is, and I wouldn't want it any other way. It should not be easy to see one of the most desired whales in the world. There should be some challenge to it. Of course, you do not want it to be too challenging, because damn, it has been tough.

It is wild how quickly things change. Last week there were a lot of whale families hanging around. This week, most of the pods have moved off to deeper and wilder waters to hunt and maybe hide. We also encountered a few predators while we were out here. Pilot whales and pygmy killer whales showed up. Of course, these are the predators we got to see. We did not see, or do not know if any other predators arrived when we were not there. It is not easy being a whale in the wild, especially with small babies. Even though you are one of the biggest animals in the ocean, survival is not guaranteed.

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Gervais Beaked whale

We head out today for day five, which means we only have two days left. The encounters we have had so far have been brief. In four days we have only had one encounter that was really good. Other than that, we have been blessed with so-so interactions.

Yesterday was our first official skunking. We saw no sperm whales, not a distant whale spout, no flukes… nothing. We did see a Gervais beaked whale and a pygmy sperm whale, but we got no water time with them. Although had I reacted quicker; I may have gotten an underwater proof of life shot of the beaked whale. It passed by the boat decently close. It would have been amazing to photograph that extremely rare whale. But I was too slow. And that is how it goes, you have to be ready for those moments if you want to see amazing things.

Well, we are heading out to sea. My fingers and toes are crossed.

I am hoping for magic… real magic today.

We need it.

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8:33PM (End of day 5 Report)

TODAY was EPIC!!! WOW, WOW, WOW! Is all I can say. Damn man, after a frustrating and slow start to this week's trip, it is so good to be able to walk off the boat having the experiences we had today. We saw our first whales and got in the water around 9:30 AM. After that, it was non-stop; the whale action just kept going. Our final jump in with the whales was around 1:30-ish. We were all exhausted but happy. That feeling of pure joy vibrates through you. I am sitting here writing in my hotel room, and my head is still buzzing from it.

The whales were feeling very social, and thankfully not in an eating mood. They instead were rubbing up on each other, rolling and playing. They were in a great mood. These are the encounters you dream of. Most of the time, the encounters you get are when the whales come up from a long feeding dive. They are tired and trying to replenish their blood with more oxygen to go down for another deep dive. So they completely ignore us or want nothing to do with us and will either pass by us quickly or just drop back down into the black abyss. Those encounters are short, and the images and videos from those moments are ok.

Spy Hopping. Not a great image but I wanted to show you what it looks like.

However, when the whales are feeling social, DAMN - those encounters are fun. The whales will swim right up to you, rolling around, turning upside down, some will spy hop,- and when the whales look at you… you can feel them really look at you. I am sure in those moments, they wish they could talk to us in a voice we could understand. I think the joy that would spill out of their souls in those moments would be too much for us to handle.

I know I am getting woo-woo right now, but I am on a high, and I do wish I could speak to them. I really do. Well, today, I did have one teenager speak to me, and I completely understood her. During one encounter, I was swimming towards a group of about six whales. I had not even gotten there yet when this fiery young lady stopped swimming. She turned around to face me and started clicking me hard with her sonar. I thought for sure she was trying to explode my brain, like in the movie Scanners. Thankfully there is nothing breakable in there, so I was safe. As she was clicking me, she let out one last click with what felt like a scream, telling me to Back Off!!! I don't speak whale, but I did understand that message loud and clear.

I was hoping for magic today, and we got it. I am so happy for all our guests who joined us this week. These are the days you want for them. You don't always get them, so you appreciate them to your very core when you do.

Damn, I am happy!

MAGIC!!! No Other Words Can Describe Today Properly.

August 5, 2021 - It is going to be difficult to describe today in words. MAGIC! That is the best way to describe it. The morning started very slow. Probably because of the pygmy killer whales that passed through the area. Sadly we could not get close to them. They are super shy and stayed far away from the boat. It was cool knowing they were around, and I snapped a few surface fin shot of them, but that was it. The day before, we had short fin pilot whales in the area. Both species are hunting for young sperm whales. So even though it is cool seeing these hard-to-find species around, it messes up our chances of finding playful sperm whales. The pilot whales were shy as well, and after a few failed attempts to get in with them, we decided to leave them alone to find sperm whales.

We spent the next few hours looking for the sperm whales. We found a few, but they were not interested in us at all and would drop down into the depths every time we tried to get close to them. Again, predators in the area made them uneasy.

A pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins entertained us for a while. They were riding our bow wave and jumping in our boat’s wake. However, they quickly got bored with us and moved on. So we kept on searching for the whales. Our Captain and guide, Kevin stopped every 30-40 minutes to drop the hydrophone in to listen and see what direction the sperm whale clicks were the loudest. They would listen, then head off in whatever direction they thought we would find the most amount of whales.

Around 1:30-ish, we found a group of four whales, and in the distance there were a few more whales all swimming in the same direction. Our guides suggested we follow them. Based on the behavior they were witnessing, they felt the whales were going to group up, possibly with more whales, to either play or sleep. So we followed them, and sure enough, more whales joined in, and then a few more. I think it ended up being around nine whales in total. The whales would swim, then slow down and start play, rolling and rubbing up on each other, play biting; they were spy hopping. They even breached a couple of times while we were in the water. It was awesome.

I snapped this image of Jean photographing the family of whales as they swam by.

We spent a couple of hours with them - we would jump in, play a bit, the whales would swim by and away, then we would get back on the boat, watch them for a while, then do it all over again. It was awesome.

It was almost time to call it quits when our Captain told us we had time for one more jump. So, of course, we all got ready. Our Captain positioned the boat near the whales, and we went in. There were around seven whales spread out; three of them went in one direction, the other four went in another direction; I followed them. I snapped a few images of the four as they swam by. They passed by me close and then kept going. I watched them swim off, then noticed that they stopped swimming and began rough playing. So I swam after them to try and get a closer look. I thought for sure they would break it off the second I got there, but they didn’t; they just kept playing. The water clouded up with bubbles and pieces of whale skin. Part of why they rough play is to help shed off their old dead skin.

They were rolling and rubbing and play biting each other. It was just MAGIC watching them play like this. I snapped image after image, stopping every once in a while to watch the show, and to get out of the way, because they kept rolling in my direction. I am not sure if they wanted to involve me in their play or not. The whales kept rolling towards me, and just a few feet away sometimes. It was WOW! I loved every second of it.

The four kept rolling and playing around us until the baby decided she had had enough and swam off. Only the three adults remained. They stayed playing for a quick minute-ish more, and then they went after the baby, leaving us alone and emotionally drained by what we just experienced. I popped my head out of the water and told my guide, “just shoot me now, nothing left to see after that.” moments later, our guest Lisa popped her head out and said, “you guys can shoot me now, I can die now.”

What a day… what an amazingly beautiful day!

Can’t wait for tomorrow. Thank you again for reading.

Travel Day... We are Off to Dominica!

July 30, 2021 - Travel Day. I am Dominica Bound! Finally. This is our first time visiting this island, and I am so very excited (and nervous), about getting there. We are headed there to find sperm whales, a species I want to get to know better.

We are running two back-to-back trips this season, and as usual, before I head out on any trip, I am incredibly nervous but filled with hope. Hoping the weather is good, hoping the animals are there, hoping the trip runs smoothly. But, of course, our job is to get our guests out there and give them an at-bat at seeing the animals we all want to see. All we can do with nature is to get out there during the best time of the year for an opportunity to encounter them. Thankfully we have done an excellent job through the years to help our friends find the wildlife we are seeking out.

I wish I could say we had a perfect record, but sadly we can not. Nature is nature, and she will sometimes play cruel jokes on us. Sometimes it is the weather, and sometimes it is the animals. But we continue trying hard to help our friends have unique experiences with wildlife. And I love it; I love the thrill of the hunt—the hunt to see the animals, of course (photo trophies only). So much of the magic we have experienced out there is hard to put into words.

Baja Sperm Whale.

Train moving through.

Anyway… a new adventure begins, with a new place for us. I have seen sperm whales before in Baja and Norway. The water visibility in Baja was horrible, and those encounters were super intense because you did not see the whale until it was just a few feet away from you. At this point, your only instinct is to move out of the way before we were run over by the freight train moving through. Damn, that was fun!

In Norway, we could not catch up to them; the dry suits were too thick and slowed us down. Plus, the water visibility was not the greatest. So we never got close enough. But in Dominica, we will have amazing visibility and whales that are hopefully tolerant of us divers.

We will see. So much is unknown, when you are out there, which is exciting. The not-knowing is always difficult when it comes to wildlife expeditions, because you do not know if and when an animal will show up. But that is what I truly love about nature, there are never any guarantees. So when they do show up, it makes each encounter special.

That unknown is where you will find magic.

Norway Sperm Whale

More later. It is time to board the plane and off into the unknown.

Thank you for reading and your comments, I appreciate them all!