For those of you reading this that have been snorkelling in Alor, you already know just how amazing that place is. By far one of my top snorkelling places in Indonesia, and trips we offer at Snorkel Venture. It is still one of those places that feels like a well-kept secret. We can spend a week there and never see another dive/snorkel operator around. Leaving us with the immaculate reefs to ourselves. We also have a great boutique resort we use, Alami Resort. Such a splendid resort and run so well by the managers Max & Rhome’ (& Team). Giving this place that little extra feeling of paradise. When in Alami, we charter the whole resort for our group making it feel like a home from home. But what makes Alor super special, is the abundance of marine biodiversity it has to offer. We can go out in the morning and come across migrating whales. Then in the afternoon, we’ll be muck snorkelling looking for all the small weird and wonderful critters. So there really is a huge range of marine life here.
Something Alor can possibly offer if you are LUCKY!! Are some of the big sea creatures we don’t see in other places. Being situated in the Savu sea above East Timor. With a very deep sea around the island. There is an oceanic channel that runs through there called the Wetar Strait. This is like a runway for migrating whales. Periodically through the year Pygmy blue whales pass through the Alor island chains heading north. I once had guests see them from the plane as we were coming into land. These giant gentle ocean mammals are a sight to behold. Only slightly smaller than their larger subspecies blue whale, they are huge at a whopping 24 metres. Interestingly, Pygmy blue whales are believed to sing in a different language or “song” than other species of blue whale, avoiding interbreeding. Other distinguishing characteristics of a Pygmy blue whale include a larger head and baleen plates, with a smaller tapering tail fluke. They also have typically darker skin than other subspecies of blue whales, and their blowhole is a different shape too.
There really is not a huge amount of data on these sea mammals. The main reason is how rare they are, and no one really knows where they come from or go. Making it very unpredictable when we can see them. But when we are lucky and everything is in our favour we certainly love to watch them.
Max from Alami resort has just recently been getting great photos and footage.
