Whale season in Bahía Malaga
It’s eleven am. The sun shines over the swells of the Pacific, casting golden light on a canopy of trees grasping to the edges of the cliffs that make up the coastline of the Uramba National Park in Bahía Málaga. “Ahoy!” shouts someone. “Three o’clock,” another. “Straight ahead,” yells someone else.
We, the passengers of ‘Alexia III’ use the boat as an imaginary sundial to guide our way through the sea in search of humpback or Yubarta whales. After navigating a shallow known as Negritos and glancing at the fins of half a dozen whales, without warning, just 25 meters away, an 18-metre-long female, following after her calf for air, reaches up towards the sky. The spectacle ends in a big splash and a unanimous sigh of disbelief.
The Colombian Pacific coast is the mating and birthing area for the humpback whale, which migrates from the southern waters of the Americas between July and October. Of the total Yubarta population (estimated around 12,000) between 800 and 1,200 reach the Colombian pacific coastline.
“Almost all Yubarta whales from this region are born in Colombian waters and are faithful to their birthplace,” explains Héctor Fabio García, a biologist turned tour-operator. Besides Bahía Málaga, whales can also be seen in Isla Gorgona, Tumaco and Nuquí.
