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5 Best Whale-Watching Sites In The World

There’s nothing quite like getting up close to a giant of the ocean, seeing a humpback breach or a minke eye you up. Here are some of the places to grab your camera, point, click and “ooh.”

Beluga whales: Cunningham Inlet, Nunavut, Canada

Approximately 2,000 beluga whales visit Cunningham Inlet for about four weeks each year. Whales can be observed thrashing about, playing and making lots of noise just a couple of meters from the shore. If boats make you seasick, this is the whale watching spot for you. Richard Weber, who owns Arctic Watch Lodge with his wife, recommends the last week of July for visitors who want to see the highest concentration of belugas. Arctic Watch charges US$6,937 per person per week of whale watching from Yellowknife. [Read more...]

World’s 5 Best Diving Sites

Here are the best places to discover the magic of thin puddles on the surface of our huge, spinning rock:

Barracuda Point, Sipadan Island, Malaysia. Barracuda Point can be an intimidating experience. Fish stream along like traffic here, as if the streets of New Delhi have descended underwater. During these chaotic scenes, you may find yourself in the center of a giant barracuda tornado, while hammerhead sharks and flapping rays nonchalantly cruise past. It’s home to the weird and wonderful too; look out for the strange-looking bum head parrot fish and eerie batfish.

Yongala, Queensland, Australia. Considered the best wreck dive on the planet, the century-old SS Yongala shipwreck is an impressive 110 meters in size and sank after a tropical cyclone in 1911 with 124 passengers onboard. However, the main attraction has to be the winter sightings of graceful minke whales and up to 16-meter-long (and 30-50 ton) singing humpback whales.

SS Thistlegorm, Red Sea, Egypt. This is the most popular wreck dive in the world, and for good reason. The SS Thistlegorm was a 128-meter-long British transport ship, which was attacked and sunk in 1941 on its way from Glasgow to Alexandria. Dive groups now swim around and inside the silty wreck with flashlights to peer at its rusted machine guns, a railway freight car, torpedoes and more. You may even spot a few crocodile fish hiding in the sand by the wreck.

Blue Corner Wall, Palau, Micronesia. This spot is what screensavers are made of; and in reality a swim here does actually feel like you’re in a computer game. Reef sharks will hover above you as schools of bigeye jacks work their way through the strong current. Below you’ll find a sizable colony of soft coral and gorgonian sea whips growing in a canyon — there’s a good chance you’ll see spotted eagle rays, huge tuna, snapper, wrasse and bass and even hawks bill and green turtles too.

Richelieu Rock, near the Surin Islands, Thailand. There is nothing quite as exhilarating as swimming next to a whale shark. Sightings in this spot are so regular the locals have called it a “whale magnet.” Even if you don’t see a whale shark you’ll still spot myriad pelagic schools of giant trevallies and dogtooth tuna.

Source: CNN Go

Image: Aqua Views