Niue is becoming renowned as a
hotspot for viewing humpback whales. The
Pacific populations head north from their summer feeding grounds in the
Antarctic to breed in warmer tropical waters, mainly around Samoa and
Tonga. In recent years, Niue has
increasingly become a breeding area too, so that whales are active around the
island for much of the winter, between June and September.
Although there are operators
running ‘swimming with whales’ tours, which are very popular with tourists, I
prefer to watch from the shore. While on
Niue, on several occasions I watched a tourist boat approach a whale, which then
dove and surfaced again some distance away.
Rather than leave the whale alone, the boat then approached again,
forcing the whale to dive once more.
Although I believe that most operators are reasonably sensitive to the
wellbeing of the whales, under pressure from enthusiastic visitors, I cannot
help but feel there is likely to be some degree of harassment. These whales travel a long distance to breed
and do not feed again until they return to Antarctic waters, living off their
stored fat reserves.
If swimming with whales is
regarded as the ultimate experience, viewing from the shore is amazing and very
satisfying for me. We regularly heard
whales at night from our cliff top accommodation, and watched them during the
day from many superb vantage points around the island. We saw females with calves, copulating pairs,
breaching and spy hopping. One of the
best viewing spots was the Sails Bar, brilliantly situated on a headland with a
180-degree plus view out over the ocean.
On one occasion, a whale breached very close to shore while we were
walking on the reef platform, giving us a real appreciation of the size of
these animals. I didn’t get my camera
out fast enough to capture the moment, but I shall never forget it. Many times we watched whales cruising past
close to the surface, easily visible through the clear water. I was surprised at how fast they travelled in
their seemingly unhurried fashion.
Overall, I believe that tourist
operations benefit nature conservation, as without public appreciation of the
value of nature, humans are more likely to exploit the natural environment for
gains of a more damaging kind.
Personally I prefer a more ‘hands-off’ approach, watching nature from a
distance without interaction because I am more interested in how wildlife
relate to each other than to humans.
I found the photography
difficult, even though we had such good views of the whales. Being fast on the shutter button was
important, because they travelled fast and were out of the water for only a
short time when breaching or spy hopping.
The light wasn’t always easy, either.
During the day it was often harsh with high contrast. Also, because some of the activity was at a
distance, the sensor of my camera (Olympus E5) didn’t have enough megapixels to
allow as much cropping as I would have liked.
In addition, when the light was better at the ends of the day, there was
less of it; so to maintain a high shutter speed the necessary high ISO resulted
in a lot of noise with the Olympus (or the compromise lower shutter speed gave
a blurry image). With my new Nikon D750,
I would get far less noise, better definition, and more detail in the shadows. So now I need to plan my next visit!
