A whale of a time

Perhaps it’s because they grow as long as three Arriva buses, weigh up to 150 tonnes and can have a heart the size of your family car, but whales have long captured our imagination.

Doubtless, Jonah himself was marvelling over his first sighting of a whale in the wild, just before he was swallowed.

From the colossal Blue Whale to the (comparatively) tiny Dwarf Sperm Whale, there’s a cetacean to be spotted at a holiday destination near you and a great sighting could makeyour trip.

So seek out a whale-watching tour next time you go abroad; here’s the pick of the crop along with a handy guide on how to pick a reputable company to ensure you protect the whales you watch.

Pilot Whales: Tenerife, Spain

The tour operators at Los Cristianos are so confident that you’ll see Pilot Whales (actually a member of the dolphin family), that some will offer a money-back guarantee.

The guides usually discover a pod fairly promptly, giving you plenty of time not just to photograph the whales, but also to sit back and enjoy watching them. If you’re lucky, you’ll see one “spy hopping”, where they lift themselves vertically out of the water to see what isgoing on.

When to go: all year round

Humpback Whales: Kauai, Hawaii

There’s actually no need to fork out for a whale-watching tour in Kauai. You can sit on the beach with your picnic and watch Humpback Whales cruising casually past.

You might also catch the magnificent sight of these whales breaching. They appear to defy gravity as they propel themselves high into the air, hover for a split second, then crash back into the waves.

The tours are worth it though, for a close-up experience of the thunderous clap as the breaching whales hit the water again and some great photographic opportunities. Tours go out in catamarans or zodiacs, some equipped with microphones so that you can hear the male escorts’ ethereal signing.

When to go: November to April.

Minke Whales: Mull, Scotland

Whalewatchingtrips.co.uk claim a 98 per cent success rate of sightings near the island of Mull, so you’ve got a good chance of seeing Minke Whales, as well as harbour porpoises, Common and Risso’s Dolphins and seals. Orca have also been spotted at times.

It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful setting, as the boats cruise the waters between Mull and the neighbouring islets and bays, with their soaring cliffs topped with green and violet heather moorlands and yellow gorse. If the weather is good, it’s hard to beat whale-watching in this remote and unspoilt setting. If not, you’llfeel you’ve earned your sighting after you’ve braved the rain or choppy seas.

When to go: March to September, with Orcas appearing towards the end of that period.

Fin, Sei and Cuvier’s Beaked Whales: Bay of Biscay

Brittany Ferries runs a service between Portsmouth or Plymouth in the UK and Santander or Bilbao in Spain and they’ve teamed up with the charity ORCA to research the cetaceans that they see en route.

On a calm day and with the help of ORCA volunteers, you are pretty much guaranteed a sighting of a whale or dolphin.

European waters have around a third of the world’s cetaceans and the gigantic Fin Whale, second only to the Blue Whalein size, has been spotted from the decks of the ferry.

The rest of the species list is equally impressive, including Common, Striped, Bottlenose and Risso’s dolphins, plusPilot, Sei, Minke and Cuvier’s Beaked Whale.

The ferry from Plymouth leaves on a Sunday afternoon and arrives around noon on Monday, then returns on Wednesday, giving you acouple of days to explore the coast of northern Spain.

Best time to go: Summer is likely to provide the best conditions

Sperm Whales: Azores, Portugal

There are nine volcanic islands in the Azores and the waters surrounding them are full of nutrients for the 20 species of cetacean that they host. Look out for Sperm, Humpback, Blue and Killer Whales, five species of dolphins and very occasionally a rare northern bottlenose whale. Travel with www.whalewatchazores.com and your tour fee will be helping to support research carried out during the tours.

You’ll also get a chance to help scientistscollect the data, and might see turtles being tagged as part of a study. The touraverages six to seven cetacean speciessightings daily.

When to go: April to September

Blue Whales: Monterey Canyon, California

Monterey Canyon is a feeding groundfor the magnificent Blue Whale, acreature on such an epic scale that it left even the perennially composed David Attenborough breathless with excitement in the Blue Planet series.

It would be worth the trip just to try to catch a glimpse of a Blue Whale, but if you miss them, you’ll be more than consoled by sightings of Minke, Humpback and Killer Whales.

When to go: Peak season is August to September, but it depends on the abundance of krill.

How to choose your tour

Whale watching is big business. Greenpeace estimates that it generates around €1.25 billion annually worldwide, infinitely more than the profits of whaling.

However, there will always be someone willing to make an extra euro by compromising the safety of the very animals that you’ve gone to admire. Try to ensure that your visit helps the conservation of whales rather than hindering it, by following some of these criteria:

Operators worldwide should stay at least 100 metres from whales, slow down when they encounter whales and approach from the side, not head on or from behind. They should use caution within 300 metres. For further information on these and additional criteria, visit www.iwcoffice.org.

Viewing should be limited to 30 minutes.

Do not attempt to swim with whales.

Whale watching can contribute significantly to marine research, so if there’s a tour operator co-operating with local researchers, choose them first.

Consider supporting an organisation committed to ending the barbaric practice of commercial whaling, such as www.greenpeace.org or www.seashepherd.org.