A responsible and risk-free whale-watching location

The Tahitian people have maintained the age-old practice of rāhui as a means of protecting marine areas, species, and habitats, such as a wintering place for humpback whales.
French Polynesia is made up of 118 islands and five archipelagos spread out over more than 2,000 kilometers of the Pacific Ocean. Many people go to this South Pacific paradise to see humpback whales in their natural habitat, but others come for the more picture-perfect views of overwater bungalows, palm-fringed beaches, and turquoise lagoons.

Following a successful career as a whale tour boat driver that began in 1998, Alexandre established Moorea Blue Water ten years later. He attributes the success of his small-group excursions to words that describe
Whale populations have recovered astonishingly from the devastation caused by commercial whaling. Worldwide, whale-watching attracts over $2 billion in revenue every year. While the vast majority of whale-watching businesses are ethical and mindful of the animals and rules, there are some areas where unlicensed operators vie to bring visitors the closest possible encounter with whales. This can stress out the local populace and throw off their normal eating and sleeping patterns.
Public legislation in French Polynesia, however, protects all cetaceans. This includes dolphins, porpoises, and whales. The indigenous chiefs of New Zealand, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands have just inked a treaty that grants whales even more protection by recognizing them as legal persons. French Polynesia is one of around ten places where tourists can go swimming with these sentient whales, and the niche industry for swim-with-whale tourism is on the rise among daredevils.
How to spot whales

Moorea is the most popular and readily accessible of the 118 Tahitian islands for day visits, where you may watch humpback whales during their migration from July to November. Rurutu is at its most beautiful in September and October, and November is when you might see the largest pods of whales off the coast of Tahiti.
French Polynesia has some of the most stringent regulations to protect its whale populations during tours, in contrast to Tonga, Australia, and the Dominican Republic, which also allow “free swimming” encounters with various species of migrating whales, and whose respective state and federal governments oversee the activities. To reduce stress on the animals during low-impact encounters, boats must stay 100m away and swimmers must stay 30m. Group numbers must be controlled and engagement times must be capped.
However, in Tonga, swimmers are allowed to approach whales up to 5 meters and boats up to 10 meters—distances that many experts consider to be unsafe for both the whales and the swimmers, following incidents of direct contact resulting in injuries.
Tahiti Tourisme’s chief marketing officer Vaihere Lissant describes the ability to provide this once-in-a-lifetime experience as “exceptional,” but emphasizes that the company does it with the greatest care for the whales and the sanctuary they call home.
Reducing the number of swimmers per boat is one of the new planned regulations for 2025 that aims to make encounters even more wildlife-friendly, while French Polynesia may have set the standard for ethical whale-swim tourism. Captains like Patea, who will stick to a maximum of four swimmers per group, are happy with the adjustments.

Wherever whale pressure is greatest, new laws are a natural progression; however, on other islands, people have traditionally maintained their distance, not out of fear but respect, he adds.
When humpback whales begin their annual 6,000-kilometer journey from Antarctica to the warm tropical waters of Tahiti to rest, breed, and raise their young, the arrival of July marks the beginning of whale season. From August 1st through November 11th, you may go on swim-with tours, when groups of six individuals wear goggles, snorkels, and flippers and slide into the water for passive encounters. While most people arrange their swim-with-whale trips with operators on Moorea and Tahiti Nui, Lissant reveals that the famous Austral Archipelago island of Rurutu—also called “whale island”—is the place to go for the most incredible experience, just 90 minutes by plane from Tahiti’s capital Papeete.

Humpback whales are the main attractions for whale watchers due to their mesmerizing “song,” spectacular breaches, and showy tail fluke slaps. Witnessing a mother humpback whale and her baby submerged provides an awe-inspiring and surreal chance for many people, who may then feel compelled to take action in support of marine conservation efforts. But the Polynesian way of life has traditionally revolved upon protecting and conserving natural resources. A prime illustration of this unity with nature is the practice of rāhui, which entails temporarily imposing “no-take” limitations on harvesting or fishing in specific areas to enable ecosystems to recover. This practice is a component of Mana, the spiritual energy that unites all land and marine life.
Dr. Hervé Ra’imana Lallemant-Moe, who is the special advisor for environmental matters to the French Polynesia government, argues that rāhui is a way of managing community resources in a sustainable way. “The term means ‘to gather after prohibition’ and was used in pre-European Polynesian island societies across the Pacific but is still relevant today because it puts everyone in charge of safeguarding our land and marine spaces.”
In 1996, French Polynesia banned industrial fishing within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a 1.9-million-sq-mile expanse of territory waters equivalent to the landmass of the European Union. The Islands of Tahiti adopted rāhui as part of their sustainable ecotourism practices, which included responsible wildlife encounters. The EEZ was reserved exclusively for the Polynesian fishing fleet. A “no-take” zone for protected marine mammals was established in 2002 by the Islands of Tahiti, making it the largest marine mammal sanctuary in the world. Sea turtles, rays, and twenty-one shark species were also protected within this EEZ. Around 3,200 humpback whales are among the twenty-four whale and dolphin species that make the refuge their home. French Polynesia was a breeding habitat for an unknown species of humpback whales until pioneering study by marine biologist Dr. Michael Poole confirmed this in 1987.
“People thought they were just passing through to the Cook Islands or Tonga,” according to him. “But our studies of their movements, DNA, and song showed the whales had been coming here and breeding since the turn of the 19th Century.”
Poole, who had fought tirelessly for the conservation of whales, spent ten years winning over the public and the government to create the sanctuary. Along with the first whale-watching trips in French Polynesia in 1992, he established three rest sites for cetaceans, a Moorea No-Take Marine Protected Area, and more.
Regulate interactions involving swimming

You must be at ease and competent in swimming in open water since bays, passes, and lagoons are off-limits. When babies are around, each small group activity shouldn’t last longer than fifteen minutes. Keep whales and dolphins together at all times, especially mothers and their young.
As part of his continuing Marine Mammal Research Programme, which he co-ordinates with visiting students to study whale behavior and population dynamics, Poole offers dolphin and whale watching expeditions aboard boats. “Our photographic, acoustic, and genetic databases have tracked the same whales for more than three decades on journeys from French Polynesia to Antarctica and other breeding areas in the South Pacific,” according to him.