Blue Whales, Australia's Biggest Export

Every year, the largest animals that ever lived on Earth, migrate from Australia's cool southern ocean waters to tropical eastern Indonesia.

This fact was only discovered relatively recently after Australian researchers tagged animals off Western Australia.

“Migratory Movements of Pygmy Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) between Australia and Indonesia as Revealed by Satellite Telemetry” Double et al (2014) 

But while you can see Blue Whales literally anywhere and they are the largest animal that ever lived, they are surprisingly hard to find. There are few spots where they congregate with any reliability. 

Blue Whales are designed to move quickly and efficiently. Once they’ve hoovered up a vast quantity of food, they simply leave for another part of the planet.

What’s interesting about the Banda Sea, is how the ocean creates such a predictable source of food for these breakneck balaenopterids. 

Scientists have discovered a huge and seasonal divergence current in the Banda Sea. When currents diverge, the only place water can come from, to fill the gap, is the deep ocean. This cooler water here is brimming with the ingredients that, for millennia, have fuelled life on Earth. 

This is what Wildiaries’ guests will discover when they travel in October 2020 on the blue whale conservation expedition to the Banda Sea and Raja Ampat, heart of the Coral Triangle. 

To visit the Coral Triangle is to dive inside a gigantic living organism; to navigate through its nervous system, ride the rush of currents passing down networks of ancient channels, highways for wildlife that feeds the organs of its being: reefs and ocean fronts where miniature forces and megafauna combine with oceanographic features on a massive scale, giving and supporting life.  

You can literally see, taste, smell and sense the power and diversity of life in this place ... more so perhaps than anywhere else. 

When we talk at Wildiaries about ‘a new way to see’, this is what we mean. These are landscapes with all the majesty of the Himalayas but the mystery of a place forgotten and much concealed beneath a vast ocean. Blue Whales and the myriad of other sea creatures that live here offer a glimpse into the abyss, a chance to connect with the oceans and to understand the fundamental forces of nature, that created life on Earth. 

This special trip, led by Wildiaries’ founder Simon Mustoe, will give us extended time with Blue Whales ... great for photographers and explorers. 

Wildiaries has teamed up with Pindito Expeditions and its associates who have been running small ship cruises for nearly 30 years and have exemplary safety and hospitality records.

These specialist trips present the opportunity for guests to be directly involved in gathering important and new information that can help lead to better decision-making for protection of marine species and locations in these incredibly important places. The expedition will be supporting young Indonesian conservationists who are on the front-edge of preserving these unique places.

For those who love snorkelling or diving, there is warm water and an abundance of coral reef and animals to see. For anyone looking for an adventure in comfort where they can share space with knowledgeable enthusiasts and give something back, this is one of those trips of a lifetime. 

Anyone interested in joining the trip can enquire and download a brochure here: 

https://wildiaries-travel.com/travel/conservation-expedition-banda-sea-a-place-of-legends, email travel@wildiaries.com or call +61 (0)3 9014 9687