It's not Bonaire, but if anyone is interested here's a link to a few of my humpback whale photos from my recent trip to the Silver Bank. It was snorkeling only (no diving allowed) but was still an amazing trip and I'd definitely do it again.

The visibility wasn't the best and we couldn't use strobes so most u/w photos are 'blue'. Quite an experience having a 40 ft, 40 ton mammal right beside you!

http://www.longpointdivers.com/whales.htm


More Bonaire photos by next weekend!

Awesome pics, Dixie! I would be thinking I would get hit with one of their tails out there. Things to ponder with such a huge creature by ya, but dang it, had to be a truly cool experience. What were the water temps there?

It was a little scary at first but then you couldn't wait to get up close to them! The guides put us in a line to the side of the whales and you definitely had to make sure you didn't get too close to their tails when they were moving!
Last week apparently one female adult became really curious with the group and "played" with them for over an hour, and even came up under one of the guides and lifted her a ways out of the water - too cool!!
Water temp. was about 79-80 degrees - I got chilled a couple of times as you're not moving around as much as you would scuba diving (and I was wearing a 5mm suit plus a dive skin!).

What a WONDERFUL experience!!!!!! Thanks for posting the beautiful pictures!

Great pics Dixie! A friend of a friend had a close encounter with whale while fishing off of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. You may need to be on Facebook to see it. rarely have I seen a video described as amazing that truly was. This one is!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1517616656329

That's a pretty cool video!

Love the pics. That one of the lobster fishermen though looks more like pirates! LOL

e.

Dixie
Believe it or not (he says to himself) it was 1993 when I did that trip with Tom Conlin. I believe the ship was the Coral Star. it was just as good then too. Amos Nachoum, the photographer, was a passenger on that trip as well. I was a great experience for sure. I did take some pictures but God knows where they are now.
Mickey

We thought the same thing Eric! It was interesting watching them start the compressor up and the 'diver' jump off the boat with his air hose and not come back up for a very long time.

That's really cool Mickey! I didn't realize trips to the Silver Bank were operating in the early 90's. Only 3 vessels are given permits to go there now. If you happen to find your photos, I'd love to see them.

Nice Pictures (as always), Dixie

Amazing whale video.

Dixie, Is it true that you cant free dive or even leave the surface?

That's pretty much true. They definitely don't allow you to free dive. However we could wear weight belts/weights (given to us) to help us duck under a couple of feet to take photos. You can't use flash/strobes on your camera either.

The calves come up every 3-5 minutes to breath so you do get lots of interaction with them at the surface and the guides do put you in very close to the whales.

Topside action (breaching, pec slapping, etc.) is really exciting too. I would go again even with no diving!