The whales of Tenerife
ArticleThere is a place close to Europe where easy to encounter marine mammals.
But for us, divers the Atlantic is the most exciting. There are plenty of exciting dive spots around the island. Usually the weather is better in the southern side of Tenerife, but there are dive centers in the north as well. Under water the divers can see many different rays, cuttlefish, shoals of grunts, morays, seahorses. The Puertito dive site famous about its regular turtle encounters.
And there are the giants of the sea. Tenerife is one of the top whale watching destinations of the world! With a little luck the visitors encounter rare species while seeing pilot whales are guaranteed. The whale watching boats often meet risso or bottlenose dolphins as well.
Nowadays most of the tourists can watch the mammals from above water. The huge, comfortable boats are ideal for shorter trips, the families enjoy the sailing in the nice weather while they can see the whales and dolphins in their natural habitats. But in the past some dive centers made short whale watching trips by RIBs, and the divers had the chance to swim with the pilot whales.
I remember when I was one of the lucky divers who met them. The ocean was so calm, so nice, we were able to reach the place where the whales live very fast. We wore wetsuits but no weights because the water was 500 m or more deep below us. Our guide turned the engines off and we waited. And suddenly the families appeared, we jumped in the water carefully, we didn't want to disturb them all. They swam really close to us, usually the females with the young whales descended while the huge, 5-6 meters long males watched us at the surface. Our guide never started the engines when the whales were around us and later talked about them, about their protection. It was an awesome day and all of us were really happy to have this experience.
As I know, they say in Tenerife swimming with the whales is not "eco-friendly". I don't know if our 2-3 minutes long encounters were the more disturbing when we just waited around the stopped RIB or when the big boats are following the families? I hope the skippers of the charter boats are as careful as our guide was. Anyway, if you go to Tenerife, join a whale watching trip, I promise it'll be one of the highlights of your holiday!
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