In the last 50 years, people's attitudes to whales have undergone a sea change. Thankfully, many people across the world would now rather watch whales, and appreciate their beauty, bulk, and extraordinary behavior, than hunt them.
Whales (and their smaller relatives, the dolphins and porpoises) also inspire in us feelings of kinship. When you hear the breath of a whale at close range, you are forcefully reminded that they are air-breathing mammals, like us. When you watch a school of bottlenose dolphins duck and weave, you realize they are complex animals with sophisticated behavior. The strength and complexity of their friendships and family ties may also be likened to our own. And many whales and dolphins have a strange curiosity about people, which is all the more surprising given our long history of ruthlessly exploiting them.
Whale watching, as a pastime and a tourist industry, began to emerge in the mid-1950s, when Californians took a keen interest in the gray whales that migrated along their coastline. Today, more than 10 million people a year join commercial whale-watching trips in one or more of up to 90 nations. The range of opportunities to watch whales, dolphins, or porpoises is astonishingly wide, and includes watching from the shore, from a floating vessel, from the air, or, on rare occasions, while actually in the water.
The aim of this book is to provide an introduction to the broad range of whale-watching opportunities around the world and to offer a starting point for planning your whale-watching trip of a lifetime. All the world's whales, dolphins, and porpoises are listed here, with information on where and how to see the more common, recognizable, and accessible species.
