Humpback whales are among the largest mammals on earth — only blue whales are bigger. An adult weighs around 30 tonnes and lives for 45 to 50 years. Every year these giants visit Dominican waters for their mating season, from January through March. They gather mainly in the bay of the Samana Peninsula, though they are seen fairly often in other parts of the country too. It is a genuinely rare opportunity to watch humpbacks with a guarantee — by most estimates fewer than 1% of people have ever seen them in the wild.
Why the Dominican Republic
A combination of factors has made the Dominican Republic close to ideal for whale watching. The whales did not choose Samana Bay by accident: there is almost no plankton here, but there are also none of the predators dangerous to calves, such as sharks or orcas.
Humpbacks themselves are a friendly, curious species — they will approach tourist boats and often let people watch them for a long stretch. Depending on the point in the season you may see very different behaviour: males competing for a female’s attention, a mother tending her calf, or, if you are lucky, feeding. Newborn whales stay near the surface almost all of the time and drink up to 45 kilograms of milk a day.
