Monday, February 2, 2009

Kerama Whale Watching Season

Now that I've been out on a trip I can declare whale watching season 2009 to be official. My goal this year is to get more trips in during February because this is their most active breaching month. Breaching is what we all want.

Fortunately by living here, I can pick and choose when I want to go out. Yesterday I watched the weather until five minutes before the afternoon trips left before committing. I made a good call as I got slightly sunburned.


It was a good trip, except our whales didn't breach. During the second hour I became a little obsessed with a whale far off on the horizon. It breached at least nine times during that hour.


Today the whales pulled something I may not see again. A couple of them passed slowly through the channel in front of the Zamami harbor. If I'd been more on the ball I could've made it out for a few close encounters in my kayak, but it turned out they were moving a little fast for me. In the picture above the whale is the spot to the left of the boats (photo taken from my apartment).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My library teacher and I were just talking about this today, as she went on a trip to Zamami, Aka and Geruma on the weekend. Sadly, she didn't take a trip out (the waves were rather intimidating, she said), though she spoke to the person at the lookout and tried to do some spotting herself...

I hope you get the pictures you want this year! A month seems like plenty of time...but are you still restricted to weekends and days off?

Dave said...

That's too bad your teacher came all the way out here and didn't go whale watching! Sunday's weather was fine, too... quite fine, in fact.

Am restricted to weekends, days off, and evenings (as long as they are beautiful!). I am hoping it all comes together this week as the weather looks great and I think I should be able to find a boat most days. Keep the whales between me and the sunset, please (Mr. boat driver).