Silversea’s whale watching voyages with ORCA break sighting records
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Silversea Cruises brings experiential travel onboard through its partnership with ORCA, a volunteer community dedicated to studying and protecting whales, dolphins and porpoises.
As a result of a partnership that was established earlier this year, Silversea and ORCA documented an array of species on its series of collaborative whale watching voyages. Along with the representatives of ORCA, a marine conservation charity, guests on the luxury cruise line witnessed a rich variety of marine animals.
The whale watching cruises are part of Silversea’s offering of Enriched Voyages, where conservationists come onboard the Silver Explorer to collect data of sightings and to educate passengers on the vessel on some of the most awe-inspiring marine species on earth.
“Silversea can help our experts reach parts of the world that we have previously been unable to visit”
Commenting on the recent whale watching voyages, ORCA’s director, Sally Hamilton, said: “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.”
The first voyage departed from San Diego to Vancouver on 2 May 2018. On the trip, passengers had a total of 565 sightings, including 232 sightings of humpback whales, and a total of 100 sightings in a single day near the coastline of San Francisco. This is a phenomenal figure, given that ORCA recorded only 78 sightings of humpback whales between 2006 and 2015.
On the second whale watching voyage, which departed from Vancouver for San Francisco on 13 May, passengers saw 661 sightings. Animals sighted ranged from orcas to three different types of dolphins, humpback whales, and Californian sea lions among others.
“With Silversea guests become ambassadors for both the destinations and wildlife across the globe”
“We are delighted to hear of the success of our first two voyages with ORCA,” said Erin Johnson, Silversea’s marketing director for the UK and Ireland. “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 whale watching voyages will continue in 2019 with conservationists from ORCA set to travel aboard the Silver Muse on 12 May and 27 May 2019.
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