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The result of a partnership established earlier this year between Silversea and ORCA, a ground breaking array of species have been documented on the first two in a special series of collaborative whale watching voyages.  Guests of the ultra-luxury cruise line and representatives of the marine conservation charity were thrilled to witness an unprecedented number of animals, including species that are new to ORCA’s extensive data set.

Part of Silversea’s collection of Enriched Voyages, the whale watching cruises saw ORCA conservationists join Silversea’s Silver Explorer to collect critical data of sightings and to educate Silversea guests on some of the most beautiful marine species on the planet.

The first voyage, which departed San Diego for Vancouver on 2 May 2018, yielded 565 sightings, including 232 sightings of humpback whales, with a total of 100 in a single day near the coastline of San Francisco.  To put this number in context, ORCA recorded 78 humpback whales between 2006 and 2015; these figures are therefore truly exceptional.

Similarly, guests on the second whale watching voyage, which departed from Vancouver for San Francisco on 13 May, saw 661 sightings.  Animals sighted ranged from orcas to three different types of dolphins, humpback whales, Californian sea lions and many more.

Commenting on the recent whale watching voyages, ORCA Director Sally Hamilton says: “the entire ORCA team are delighted to see such an impressive number of species spotted on the first two of our collaborative voyages with Silversea.”

“This programme has demonstrated how the partnership with Silversea can help our experts reach parts of the world that we have previously been unable to visit, contributing crucial sightings of whales, dolphins and porpoises to our ongoing marine conservation work.”

“We are delighted to hear of the success of our first two voyages with ORCA,” says Leanne Fonagy, Director Marketing – Asia Pacific, Silversea Cruises. “We strongly believe that when guests travel with Silversea they become ambassadors for both the destinations and wildlife across the globe, and the fantastic feedback we have received from our guests aboard both voyages is a great testament to this.”

The collaborative whale watching voyages continue into 2019 with conservationists from ORCA set to travel aboard the following cruises:

  • Silver Muse voyage 6910, departing from Tokyo to Seward on 12 May 2019.
  • Silver Muse voyage 6911, departing from Seward to Vancouver on 27 May 2019.