The ocean of Hualian is one the world's hottest spot for viewing dolphins and whales and I bet many of you are not know. Reason being waters off the Hualian coast is connected to the Pacific Ocean which is a suitable habitat for marine mammals. However, their appearance is uncertain and according to our boat's captain, the best months are March and April as many species from other area will migrate through here or come here to mate. Before joining the watching tour, let me show you a clearer picture our hostel outlook.
The hostel named ChihSinHai (七星海). The owner has it in two blocks. Pix on the right hand side shows the one that is just newly completed few days ago before we became the 1st guest.
The hostel is providing free breakfast made up of variety homemade breads, porridge and the special one is this Taiwan traditional spring roll. Black and white glutinous rice is wrapped with sweet pickled red cum white carrot and it is a best fast food for Taiwan's military as per our driver.
Many of the fishing ports in Hualian are offering the whale-and-dolphin-watching-tour. Our boat is depart from this fishing port called Hualian Fishing Leisure Port or 花莲渔港休闲码头 in Mandarin. The tour costs us about NTD 750 per person.
Scenery around the fishing port. This pix differentiate out the sky blue and the sea blue. <3
Cute sitting rocks.
Thought this is our boat but actually not. All the boats are of same 'species' just different in terms of name. ;)
Ah haaaa!!.....here comes our boat. The name is Pacific Ocean (太平洋) instead of Whale World (鲸世界) of the pix above.
He is our boat captain named MooChen driving the boat above and he is also using Nikon brand DSLR. *Winks*
After safety briefing and putting on our life jacket, the boat depart slowly from the port.
Leaving the port.
The easily spotted red lighthouse on the port but I've spoiled the captured as well as the photoshop. :(((
The boat soon speeds up to the center of Pacific Ocean carrying the same 'name' too. Hehe ^^
After half an hour, pods of dolphin leaping far from behind, getting close to our boat and everyone started to scream out loud. The 1st species we 'hunt' is the spinner dolphin (飞旋). Despite swim fast, they can jump up very high from the water and make a quick spin which bring alotsa delights to us. Dolphin is very special to me and I even make some wishes when they spin. (-_-)’‘’ Haha! No more words after this and I'll just show you their fantastic pictures.
After safety briefing and putting on our life jacket, the boat depart slowly from the port.
Leaving the port.
The easily spotted red lighthouse on the port but I've spoiled the captured as well as the photoshop. :(((
The boat soon speeds up to the center of Pacific Ocean carrying the same 'name' too. Hehe ^^
After half an hour, pods of dolphin leaping far from behind, getting close to our boat and everyone started to scream out loud. The 1st species we 'hunt' is the spinner dolphin (飞旋). Despite swim fast, they can jump up very high from the water and make a quick spin which bring alotsa delights to us. Dolphin is very special to me and I even make some wishes when they spin. (-_-)’‘’ Haha! No more words after this and I'll just show you their fantastic pictures.
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Put a stop for spinner and captain was driving us to different latitude to 'hunt' for another species. Bye bye spinner!!
Spindrift created by our boat not dolphin, hehe ;)
Not pair but groups made up this ‘Titanic'. :D
The next species we observed was Risso's dolphins (花海豚). They are bigger type with linear scars on their body mainly caused from social interactions (or fighting) among them. They have shorter beak with lighter grey in colour and if I'm not mistaken, Risso's is the largest species of dolphin.
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Ended of our dolphin-watching-tour after 3-4 hours. The best time to 'hunt' for them is early morning or late afternoon. Hearsay they are about 14 species of whales and dolphins can be spotted along Hualian coast. Dolphins are more often appear than whales. If you are lucky enough, you may see sperm whales and beaked whales, unfortunately we were not. Anyway, still feel grateful to see real dolphins swimming in the real ocean instead of in the aquarium. :)))
