This week we had a whale of a time! On the way back from our 1st 3 day/2 night Surin snorkeling trip of the season, there was a rare treat in store ... and it was BIG! 

It is with great excitement we can report our first ever whale sighting! Oh yes, we saw a Fin Whale!! This is the 2nd largest animal in the world - the Blue Whale is the biggest. It was truly awesome to observe and every time it breached showing its distinctive dorsal fin, everyone on the boat shrieked with glee! The fin whale has many nicknames around the world but the Thai boat crew call it "Buddha Whale".

The fin whales were feeding on the plankton-rich waters around Hin Pae & Koh Torinla in Surin National Park and stayed in the area for at least 3 days. So for the first time ever, whale watching was added to the itinerary on our 2 day/1 night Richelieu & Surin dive safari this week! Boat captains were quick to share the news of sightings with each other but there was never more than 2 snorkel/dive boats in the area and no one entered the water to disturb the feeding whales. Up to 4 fin whales were seen together on Wednesday and 2 fin whales on Thursday & Friday. Fingers crossed they stay around for next week's trips too!

As well as recording key sightings during all our dives & snorkel sessions for the 3rd year of our Ocean Action Project, Blue Guru also contributes data to Shark Guardian's eShark project which monitors numbers of whales seen too. It will be interesting to find out if there have been other fin whale spotted elsewhere in the Andaman Sea this season or if we were just especially lucky to have these gigantic visitors in Surin National Park.

And as if fin whales weren't exciting enough, our Ocean Action Project research this week included sightings of turtles, sharks AND rays! We had our first turtle sightings of the season - 1 juvenile hawksbill at Koh Satok, the most northernly of Surin's islands, and another hawksbill at Richelieu Rock. We also had our first shark sighting of the season - a reef shark at Richelieu Rock. Furthermore, this is the first time ever we have observed turtles or reef sharks at Richelieu Rock. We also saw 4 Kuhl's stingrays at Koh Torinla. 

Let's hope the "Buddha Whale" is a good omen for the prosperity of sharks, rays, turtles & whales in Surin National Park.