Annual whale migration

In January and February, the annual rains hit the Serengeti and the animals can be seen grazing in immense numbers and it is time for female wildebeest to start giving birth. Predatory activity by lions, leopards, hyenas and wild dogs is also at its peak.

By March or April, the Serengeti has dried out and the massive grouping of animals of approximately 1.5 million wildebeest, 300,000 zebras, and large numbers of antelopes gather up their young and begin their long clockwise trek from Tanzania’s Serengeti Plains, first northwards where their mating season begins and then north-eastward to Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve.

There is no start or finish to this 1,800-mile journey in search of food and water, and the exact timing and route of the migration changes from year to year, depending on the rains.

One of the most spectacular sights of the migration occurs from July through September when the herds gather to cross the Grumeti River inTanzania and the Mara River in Kenya and are attacked by waiting crocodiles. It’s a tough journey and every year an estimated 250,000 wildebeest fail to return to the Serengeti where their journey began.

But between January and April of every year there is another spectacular, but little known, migration taking place in the Caribbean where the seas off the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic is the destination for several thousand migrating North Atlantic humpback whales, drawn to the breeding and calving grounds at Silver Bank, Navidad Bank and Saman? Bay in the Dominican Republic’s 2,500 square kilometre Marine Mammal Sanctuary.

Whale watching has become an increasingly popular activity worldwide, and the DR is fortunate to have one of the largest and best humpback breeding sanctuaries in the world.

Whale watching is a thrilling experience for anyone interested in nature and in the preservation of our natural resources and the DR Government enforces strict whale protection laws and guidelines to ensure the safety of these wonderful animals.

Between January and March, Rinc?n on the west coast of Puerto Rico is well placed for viewing migrating humpback whales. To the east of Puerto Rico, humpback whales also pass through the waters of the US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, St Kitts and Nevis during their annual migration.

In the seas around Guadeloupe, sperm whales are most likely to be seen and pilot whales, orcas, and migrating humpbacks are often sighted. In St Lucia’s waters, between December and April, migrating sperm whales, short-finned pilot whales and occasionally humpbacks, Bryde’s whales, and orcas may be sighted.

Dominica, the “Nature Island of the Caribbean”, is the whale-watching capital of the Eastern Caribbean.

It is one of the rare places where sperm whales live year-round. In addition, from January to March, migrating humpbacks, pilot whales, false killer whales, and orcas also visit.

For more than 100 years fishermen from the island of Bequia hunted humpback whales. In 1986 the International Whaling Commission permitted fishermen from St Vincent and the Grenadines to kill four humpback whales annually.

Recently, the National Trust of that country has been successful in converting former whale hunters into whale-watching tour operators.

Whales are more valuable alive than dead.

In the seas around Grenada, as with other parts of the Caribbean, January to March is the peak season and Cuvier’s beaked whales and orcas are seen. Bryde’s, pilot, and sperm whales can be seen yearround in these waters.

During the mid-1800s, before the decline in the Caribbean whale population, whales were caught in Trinidad waters and whaling stations operated at Gasparee and Chachacare Islands.

T o d a y whales are rarely seen in Trinidad and Tobago waters.