Silver Bank, Dominican Republic

February, 2000
Approximately 90 miles north of the Dominican Republic port of Puerto Plata lies a large coral bank where the western Atlantic humpbacks winter. These are the humpbacks that you see when you go whale watching from the New England states.
You see mom and calf breaching at the same time. This is where the calves are born and the mothers fatten them up for their trip back.
We boarded our 8 passenger, 55 foot "live aboard" the M/V Ocean Explorer on Saturday night, motored out to Silver Bank, anchored and spent the next 5 days. During each day we took the inflatable tenders out to get close enough to the whales to drop into the water and float among them. The Dominican Republic allows Tourists to go snorkeling with the humpbacks (no diving).
Joyce swam backwards the first time a whale came to check her out, but soon learned to relax and let the whales swim to her. This calf just investigates two of us humans, while mom swam under us. We just lay real still.
Later, this same curious calf swam among a number of us. You can see how close it came to Julie.
While Bob and Joyce have spent many hours observing whales from the surface, seeing them in the water is completely different. Observing the whales in the water is very different. As Joyce said, "I have never looked in the eyes of so many whales in 5 days in my life." The interaction of mom and calf is wonderful to watch. Here is a calf just twisting around trying out its new body.
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