Humpback Whale watching In Samana Bay

The Dominican Republic has one of the largest and best Humpback breeding sanctuaries in the world. Every year, more than 4,000 whales visit the Bay of Samana with this purpose.

Humpback Whale watching In Samana Bay has many tours that offer the opportunity to appreciate these creatures breeding and giving birth to their young without disrupting their natural habitat.

Found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 25,000 km (16,000 mi) each year. Humpback whales feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth in the winter when they fast and live off their fat reserves. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. humpback have a diverse repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble net technique.

Fully grown males average 13–14 m (43–46 ft). Females are slightly larger at 15–16 m (49–52 ft); one large recorded specimen was 19 m (62 ft) long and had pectoral fins measuring 6 m (20 ft) each.

Humpback Whale watching In Samana Bay

Humpback Whale Watching

This giants are also famous for having amazing and intricate songs that are thought to have an important role in mate selection; however, they may also be used between males to establish dominance. Both male and female humpback whales vocalize, but only males produce the long, loud, complex songs.

Each song consists of several sounds in a low register, varying in amplitude and frequency, and typically lasting from 10 to 20 minutes but can extend for more than 24 hours. Although cetaceans have no vocal cords, they generate their songs by forcing air through their massive nasal cavities (blowholes) located on the dorsal.

humpback whale watching

Fun fact: Whales sleep by dozing off only half of their brain at one time, allowing the other half to surface, breathe, and return to the deep without awakening the other half.

Okay so you have the facts and figures and are all ready and excited to go Humpback Whale Watching in Samana.

Let me share our trip we made a few week ago when Helen’s brother came to stay with a week, what better trip than to see the Humpback Whales.

So I had a choice call one of the tour operators who are all very good or go it alone using my own local contacts, of course I chose the latter.

So I called my old friend “Totto” who works for the Samana tourist board and arranged the boat and agreed to meet at 9am in Samana.

The morning of the adventure was not looking promising heavy rain and black skies, Helen wanted to call it off but as we are all English what is a little rain to us, nothing!

So all packed up we drove the very scenic route to Samana 40 minutes in all from Las Terrenas, well of course we were behind schedule so Totto was calling us saying the boat was ready.

We got into Samana at 9.45am i had told Totto to let the boat go and we would get another but as the rain was so bad the boat had been delayed.

We paid our local resident/friends rate of only US$40 each including the compulsory marine park government tax and boarded a very nice Catamaran. There were around 25 people already on board looking a little wet and impatient, I presume they had been waiting for us to arrive. To make matters worse Totto decides to skip off and come back with coffee and fresh Empanadas for me, Helen and James which were most welcome.

After a brief safety talk and the fitting of life jackets the boat left the harbour and headed out towards the bay and rough seas, big waves and dark skies.

The sea was rough but every one was in good spirits and enjoying the moment and excitement of seeing Whales, most of our other passengers I found out were from Spain, conversation was difficult not due to language but due to the engine noise and rough seas.

After 20 minutes the heavens opened and the crew handed out these great black plastic jackets with a hood that fitted over the life jacket, they were excellent.

The swell got bigger and up and down we went smashing down on waves you could see some people turning various shades of green me included!

Thank goodness we got though the rain and arrived with other boats at an area that the Humpback Whales facilitate.

Cameras ready we all wait in anticipation for the show then the first water spout is seen the boats like a pack of hungary Wolves all move towards this area, waves are high and the boat is up and down.

Then the first Humpback appears against the black sea very hard to spot but its a start just a rolling back breaking water, fantastic we will think we have found them lets see them jumping around and putting on a display.

After an hour and 15 minutes of moving around more rain, high seas and feeling sick we get no more than several sightings of the Whales Humps coming out of the water, getting a good video was near impossible with the big swell and rain but I did get a little on film which i have shared.

All in all we were a little disappointed but due to the bad weather we were lucky to see what we did, another day they would have been gracing the skies like flying fish.

The boat captain stayed out longer than they should have and was apologetic that we had not seen more animated whales.

We all went then to Island Cayo Levantado were our fellow adventures got off to enjoy the rest of the day, we have been there and got the T-shirt many times. We had to jump a ride on another boat going back to the harbour with another tour group free of charge after they realised we were Totto’s friends.