Dive New Zealand : dive-articles

White Whales

June/July, 2010

By Ekaterina Kurakina, Andrey Nekrasov.
Photos Andrey Nekrasov

On the horizon I see pieces of ice moving against the wind at high speed. They come closer and I discover with a surprise that they are not splinters of ice but snow white gigantic creatures. They greet me with the joyous slapping of their tails against the water�s surface. These are the mysterious white whales...

Spring in the Arctic Ocean. The weather is beautiful. It's only -5C (in the Arctic winter the temperature goes down to -60C). The spring sun looks out timidly from fluffy clouds to send the first shy rays of light to earth. The sky blue, mirror like surface of the ocean stretches out as far as my eyes can see. Everywhere there are sparkling blocks of ice drifting towards distant land. But what was that? On the horizon I see pieces of ice moving against the wind at high speed. They come closer and I discover with a surprise that they are not splinters of ice but snow white gigantic creatures. They greet me with the joyous slapping of their tails against the water's surface. These are the mysterious white whales. They live in all Arctic seas and nearby territories: the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. In cold winters they migrate to temperate waters and estuaries such as the White Sea, the Japanese coast, Amursky estuary, Ob, Yenisei, Yukon and even Rein.

Let's look closer at these gigantic beauties...... (full story in the June/July 2010 issue #118)