What It’s Like Swimming With Humpback Whales in Niue

From above water, perching on the sting of a RIB boat, I may hear a humpback whale singing. No hydrophone required. I’d come to the South Pacific nation of Niue, a 100-square-mile upraised coral atoll house to roughly 1,800 individuals between Fiji and Tonga, for exactly this encounter.

My information signaled to our group that the humpback was in sight and we may enter the ocean—clear as a swimming pool—to see it. We slipped quietly off the boat’s gunwales and into an underwater symphony.

Beneath the floor, the whale music was so intense I may really feel it reverberating in my chest. But the behemoth had but to materialize into clear view. So I waited and listened. I’ve been a diver for greater than half my life, however on this tour with diving firm Niue Blue, I used to be properly conscious that I used to be about to witness one thing wondrous.

I’d chosen to go to Niue as a result of it promised a less-trodden expertise than elsewhere, each within the water and on land. Even in peak season round July and August, solely two flights arrive every week on the island (3.5-hour jaunts on Air New Zealand from Auckland, some 1,500 miles to the south).

Between July and September every year, humpback whales on their annual migration north from feeding grounds in Antarctica arrive in these clear blue waters (in addition to these surrounding neighboring South Pacific island teams like Fiji, Tonga, and French Polynesia, amongst different locations) to mate and calve.

Mere minutes offshore from Niue’s rugged shoreline, underneath extremely regulated circumstances, it’s doable to enter the water to snorkel with the whales whereas they’re at relaxation. Only two whale watching and snorkeling operators—the PADI Eco Dive Center, Niue Blue, and Niuean-owned Explore Niue Tours & Travel—take individuals out to snorkel with the whales.

Photo by Ant Brown Photography

Before we headed out, a information had briefed our group on moral whale interactions and the strict laws for snorkeling with them. Humpback interactions begin with cautious observations of their habits on the floor. “If [the whales] are active, moving, or showing any competitive behaviors with male and female, we generally leave them alone,” explains Evan Barclay, managing director of Niue Blue.

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Once boats come inside 200 meters of the whales, the vessels should sluggish to “no wake” speeds and might solely method from the aspect, conserving as much as 50 meters distance always. If circumstances are deemed acceptable, guides will enter the water to scout earlier than motioning guests to comply with them in, sustaining 20 meters distance from the whales. A most of six individuals and one information are allowed within the water without delay, with limits to how a lot time a ship can spend close to a whale, too: one hour, together with finding the whale and time with friends within the water.

For locals, the return of the whales each season marks a particular time on the island, in line with JinNam Hopotoa, who’s a part of Niue Ocean Wide (NOW) Trust, a charitable belief underneath New Zealand legislation that performs a essential position within the island’s sustainable improvement and community-led conservation efforts.

“They carry history,” he says. “They carry memories, in a way, from all the whales that have come through Niue as part of this migratory route. It’s a reminder for us that there’s maintenance in keeping something beautiful going for the next generation.”

As threats to whales enhance (like strikes and underwater noise air pollution from boats), efforts from NGOs, governments, scientists, and group leaders are growing within the blue corridors of the western Pacific in addition to elsewhere all over the world. In 2023, the Caribbean island of Dominica created a Marine Protected space (MPA) for endangered sperm whales. And in 2024, the Azores Marine Park, additionally house to resident sperm whales, grew to become the biggest marine park within the North Atlantic.

Photo by Rick Neves/Shutterstock

Niue first established its Moana Mahu Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 2020 as a no-take zone that prohibits issues like fishing or mining and covers 40 % of the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a maritime zone extending 200 miles from a rustic’s territorial sea. Over the course of two years, Niue voted to offer protection for marine life throughout all its areas of financial use.

Today, the nation (a self-governing nation in free affiliation with New Zealand) is a world-leader in preserving all of its ocean territory, an area of water the size of Norway that protects the humpbacks in addition to different species just like the endemic katuali sea snake.

“With the protection of our MPA, we want to continue to make this a special and sacred place for them,” says Hopotoa. “The whales have been a massive part of our culture; they train their calves here for the long journey back south.”

Niue has only one resort, the oceanfront Scenic Matavai Resort, a government-owned lodge constructed to advertise tourism, with 55 rooms and a whale bell on the terrace that friends can jingle when a humpback is sighted offshore.

The cultural significance of welcoming whales to their waters is of nice significance to Niueans, explains Hopotoa, whether or not they get into the water to snorkel with them or simply hearken to their exhalations, fluking, and singing at evening from dry land.

Only the male humpbacks sing, I had discovered on the boat earlier than we entered the water, and far of why they do stays a thriller. Their songs can carry throughout 1000’s of miles of ocean—which appears fully believable, I believe, as I float within the water, listening to the melodious mammal.

I lay stomach down like a seastar on the floor with my eyes targeted on the blue under. The whale’s music amplifies my coronary heart’s thudding—certainly, it feels just like the bass booming from a speaker. I see a darkish shadow and notice it’s the humpback. I linger in place, pay attention, and wait.

Then, after quarter-hour of floating, I notice the humpback is rising within the water column—a leviathan levitating.

Within seconds, the whale seems to be simply meters under us, rolling onto its again to disclose its white underside. Then, as if in sluggish movement, it rises at an angle to 1 aspect of us, breaking the water’s floor a brief distance away. I increase my head out of the water to observe, treading water, mild as a feather and stiff as a board with surprise, simply taking all of it in. Then the creature drops silently down, again into the depths.

“They come here for a reason,” Hopotoa had instructed me. “Our ancestors would have seen them, and we want our kids and future generations to see them as well.”