|
Guide to Whale Watching - Britain and Europe by Mark Carwardine
Guide to Whale Watching - Britain and Europe by Mark Carwardine
Is the Editor having a laugh? After my abortive attempt to photograph humpback whales earlier this year, he has asked me to review Mark Carwardine's Guide to Whale Watching - Britain and Europe. Well, I know a lot about staring at empty horizons, so why not?
This little volume follows a tested format, with a quick guide to cetacean anatomy followed by a catalogue of species with illustrations, maps of likely distribution and a dive sequence in silhouettes of what you might see. Then comes the section 'Where to Watch Whales in Europe'.
There is little chance of a sighting in Hungary but it seems that any country with a coastline, apart from the Baltic states, is a contender. Surprised?
This book is filled with pictures of those glimpses one gets of these great creatures at the surface - a bit of back and a dorsal fin.
Apart from dolphins, only the humpback seems to give at least a momentary show, by breaching clear of the water.
Every country listed can field someone with a boat who will take you out. I took some friends out one evening in my boat, off Mallorca, and a pod of dolphins buzzed us, one actually jumping over the bow. It was wonderful, but every evening afterwards other people would ask me to take them to see the dolphins. We never saw another at that spot, but at least I didn't charge my passengers.
Whales don't need passports. They swim where they want. So where is the best place in Europe to go? After close study of this guide I deduced that Iceland, Greenland and the Azores would top the list. Hardly Europe!
Better to travel hopefully than to arrive - this is a book for those who love the idea of whale-watching rather than those who want to know how cold, sun-burned/glassy-eyed/bored you can get waiting for the action. But buy it for auntie.
John Bantin
|
Guide to Whale Watching - Britain and Europe by Mark Carwardine (New Holland, ISBN 1843300591). Hardback, 192pp, £14.99
|
|
|
Archive | 
