Dive Pacific 175 Dec2020 Jan 2021

Whales!
Sperm, right, and humpback whales
traditionally pass by the Kermadecs
twice a year on their annual migrations.
In the 19th century they
attracted whalers from around the
globe. The Kermadecs find themselves
in the logbooks of many a whaling
ship, along with hundreds of barrels of
whale oil, in particular those from the
famed whaling haunts New Bedford
and Nantucket in the US.
Spotted black groupers (Epinephelus daemelii)
Toadstool grouper (Trachypoma macracanthus)
The Donna Catharina
Since the cessation of whaling,
humpbacks have started visiting the
Kermadecs in numbers once more.
Each spring scores of them, many with
calves in tow, stop to rest and socialize
around Raoul for a few weeks on
their way south to feeding grounds in
Antarctica. We anchored at the islands
for a week and found it hard to tire of
the constant breaching and singing
from these gentle leviathans. Their
vocalisations certainly added a unique
sensation to the night dives we undertook.
Keen sense of the remote
One week at the Kermadecs Islands
was never going to be enough. This
rugged, swell-battered, volcanically
active group of rocks really kindles a
sense of the remote, a feeling not many
places left on Earth can. And with
the fascinating blend of human and
natural history it was easy to be truly
captivated both above and below the
water.
Sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus)
38 Dive New Zealand | Dive Pacific