Wildlife encounters with short-finned pilot whales
Whale watching has become a multi-million dollar industry on a global scale. Next to observations of free-ranging whales and dolphins from land-based platforms such as high cliff tops, hundreds of thousands of whale watchers book boat excursions (...here...) to approach cetaceans in the wild. Next to boat-based whale watching, swim-with whales or dolphins have become increasingly popular (...here...). During these humans directly enter the water to approach single animals or groups. Short-finned pilot whales have been in the focus of both (...here...), and at certain locations they are the main or one of the main target species.
Click ...here... to see boat-based whale watching excursions with short-finned pilot whales from a helicopter perspective (.mov file with 11.7 MB).
Click ...here... to see in-water interaction sequences from a single encounter with free-ranging short-finned pilot whales (.mov file with 9.4 MB).
Click ...here... to see a swim encounter with a resting pilot whale group (.mov file with 5.7 MB).