Has anyone swam with the Humpback Whales at the Silver Banks. I am interested in the opportunity to swim with the whales but I have only been able to find 7 day liveaboard trips. Are shorter trips available? or at least trips that mix snorkling with the whales with SCUBA diving on the reef?
Whales at Silver Banks - Dominican Republic
- Thread starter champ
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
elbuzo
Registered
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------champ:
You need patience and time to have good in-water encounters with the whales, so 7 day trips is the way to go , you spend 2 days goig in-out of the Silver Banks and 5 days there , less time than 5 days is not worthy . Each year an estimated of more than 3,000 whales congregate there so you will see plenty of whales evryway you look , the thing is that only very small fraction are curious about small boats and snorklers , so very few get close to you but when they do you will have one of the most amazing experiences in your life.
I have made some dives there and besides the tower formations of reefs are impresive ,most of the coral is dead or in bad shape , seems that overfishing and coral diseases are taking their toll .
While diving we encounter whales once and they looked as suprised and curious as us .
I think that operators going there don't offer scuba diving because is much better to use the time looking fo whales encounters and also because of security , that place is about 100 milles far from shore , definitly not the place to have some lost diver drifting away ( it had happened in the past ) .
If you want to make some nice wall diving ," hear" ( feel is more precise ) the whales singing u/w and maybe some sighting i can recommend you to go to Las Galeras on the tip of the Samana peninsula . You can stay at Hotel Club Bonito or Hotel Villa Serena , the diving is run by a couple of spaniards near by the hotels.
Also you will be close of some of very beautiful and quiet beaches .
Buena suerte
Yes, I went with Aquatic Adventures...Tom Conlin. He's the king of the whales there (he set up the Reserve, inwater rules, etc.). I LOVED it! It was an amazing trip! It was on a live aboard for a week and I can highly recommend it. No diving is allowed with the whales...only snorkling. You might like to have a look at Tom's website. It truly was a magical trip!! http://www.aquaticadventures.com/
Forgot to add that, I too, hated no diving so at the end of the trip I went to Bonaire for a little while. It made the trip a long one, but I did get both the whales and the diving done. I don't know about diving in the DR, but I'm sure there's something available there. The Silver Bank is 70 miles offshore and there was no reef there.
Cynthia
Cynthia
Similar threads
