The first time we visited Tarifa for a whale watching cruise was in May, and I was disappointed to hear that we were early for the Orca season, which would run through July and August.
A week’s holiday in August in Andalucia, close to the pueblo blanco of Arcos de la Frontera, therefore seemed the perfect opportunity to join another expedition in search of the ‘killer whale’.
Tarifa is an odd little town, where messy, chaotic modern development has all but obliterated its medieval military past. Part of the ancient city wall and other sites are still in evidence but the city has now been given over to tourism, and so if it’s history you’re after there are better destinations nearby. Tarifa is for pleasure. The Costa de Luz has fabulous beaches, stretching to the great city of Cadíz in the west, and has become a top destination for kite surfing and other terrifying wind-related sports.
Tarifa is also a gateway. Here at the straits of Gibraltar, the Atlantic Ocean becomes the Mediterranean Sea. A few kilometres to the north is Algeciras, the main port linking Spain and Morocco. Signposts for Algeciras, in Spanish and Arabic, can be seen as far north as the Basque Country, more than 1,000km away, alongside electronic signs urging travellers to buy their tickets in advance!
And even on a cloudy day, such as we had, you can see Africa from Tarifa. At its shortest point the distance is less than 15km, and it’s an evocative, mysterious sight, looming as a great shadow.
On another day, we could have taken a day trip to Tangier on the Moroccan coast, but this day was about the Orcas. Besides Tarifa, I’ve taken whale watching tours in Moreton Bay in Queensland, Boston Harbour and in the Azores. And while all of these have been successful, the only Orca I’ve seen was Shamu at Sea World in Florida in the 1980s.
And so we booked a three hour trip with Turmares, one of a number of providers, that promised enough time to get to the site close to Tangier which offers the best opportunity to see these dolphins, who are migrating through the Straits of Gibraltar and feeding off the blue fin tuna, competing with Spanish and Moroccan fishermen for their prey.
It’s all somewhat hit and miss of course as these are wild animals not conforming to anyone’s schedule, and the guides on board explain that they have experienced some disappointing trips in recent days. Nonetheless, their earlier trips had found a family group of Orcas, and the boat set off at high speed towards the African coast where they had been seen.
On the way, the guides – in both Spanish and broken but commendable English – talked about the animals of the Straits, their feeding and migration habits and about the seven species of cetacean to be found in this busy stretch of water, including various other dolphins and fin and sperm whales. As they spoke, the 40 or so passengers peered out to sea. A pod of dolphins was spotted during the outbound journey but with all eyes on the Orca prize the boat maintained its course without slowing.
And after about an hour, and close to the African coast, it struck gold. In sight of various small Moroccan fishing boats, our boat slowed and approached a research vessel and shortly afterwards a family of eight Orcas appeared gliding swiftly and serenely through the calm waters. With their high dorsal fins and distinctive white oval patches by their eyes, Orcas are very distinctive and unmistakeable.
In this family group there are eight dolphins, and it is clear from the sight of a very small dorsal fin swimming very close to a larger female (distinctive because of the curvature of the dorsal fin) that there is a baby there as has been previously reported by the crew.
We are at a distance of probably five to ten metres, close enough to see the animals fairly clearly. But what we can’t determine is what size are these animals that can grow to be up to 7m and 4 tons. It doesn’t matter. Seeing them is enough.
I can’t really describe the thrill it gives me to experience dolphins and whales in the wild like this. It makes me a child again and my heart just fills at the sight of them. And no matter how often I see them the thrill never wears off.
For one thing, they are majestic and beautiful creatures that move with incredible grace. They are also very social, clearly very smart and with sophisticated family structures.
I’ve thought a lot about why it gives me such pleasure., and I’ve had a lot of time to do so. On Brittany Ferry crossings between northern Spain and the UK, I’ve spent full days out on deck looking out for whales and dolphins, an experience that is either feast or famine. On my last crossing, none, on previous trips dozens of dolphins and many whales.
As a child of the 1970s I wonder whether it’s the influence of Greenpeace’s Save the Whale campaign that was launched in 1975 and has left enough of a mark that I still remember if very clearly.
With all of our global ecosystems now fragile and the oceans warming, there are clear threats to all species. So perhaps seeing them is reassurance that, for now at least, the cetaceans are surviving, and that is something.
We stay with the Orcas for about 20 minutes, leaving them to the researchers to head off in search of a pod of five fin whales that have been seen close to Tarifa, heading west towards the open Atlantic.
We find them, and there are five. They dwarf the Orcas in terms of their size. Only the blue whale is bigger than the fins, which in the northern hemisphere can grow to 20 metres and 50 tons. They are quite magnificent. The photo here is not mine, alas, but from a different day from a Turmares crew member and gives some indication of their scale.
Our boat follows them for about 30 minutes during which time they dive on a number of occasions, the crew trying to guess where they will surface.
Thrillingly, as we follow them, one of the whales breaches the surface of the water, leaping into the air before crashing back down. This, apparently, is a rare sight for fin whales, as this article with a fabulous photo explains. More amazingly a young girl at the front of the boat has captured the breach on video and shares her footage with everyone aboard.
With the Orcas ticked off, and then a rare fin breach, this is already proving to be a fantastic trip. Even the crew, who are probably out on the water at least daily, seem thrilled with what they’ve seen.
The icing on the cake comes with an encounter with a huge pod of maybe 60 common dolphins as the boat makes its way back to Tarifa. They’re a more common sight than whales, but no less thrilling. On a chartered boat in the Azores a few years back we were lucky to see many pods. I recall what our skipper, Duarte, a laid back Azorean, said at the time: “I’ve seen them hundreds, thousands of times. But it is always good to see them.” And so it is.
