KOMARNA, July 31, 2020 — The team at HRT (Croatia Radio Television) spotted several whales in Mali Ston Bay near the construction site of the new Pelješac Bridge.
People are reporting more sightings of whales, dolphins, and even sharks, all of which are harmless to humans. The HRT team spotted the whales near Komarna, which is near the future Pelješac Bridge. The team saw several whales, all of which were longer than 15 meters.
A rare sight on the high seas, let alone in a small bay, two whales passed between the pillars of the future Pelješac Bridge and were swimming into Mali Ston Bay.
Croatia Fisherman: First Time Whale Sighting
“I have been a professional fisherman for 30 years and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. I had some tourists from Poland on my boat. The whales appeared and I couldn’t believe it,” says Milan Pezo, a fisherman from Klek.
“It is a truly fantastic sight. We saw two, even three and they are huge, about 15 meters long,” says Ivo Jerković of Komarna.
The whales are very peaceful, they swam around the boat, dived under it, but didn’t touch the boat.
There are reportedly two whale species which regularly enter the Adriatic Sea.
“Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and Cuvier’s beaked whales, Ziphius cavirostris, are two species which have a cosmopolitan distribution.
Normally Stay in Open Waters
The fin whale, also known as finback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-largest species on Earth after the blue whale. The largest grow to 27.3 meters long with a maximum confirmed length of 25.9 m. They may weight up to nearly 74 tonnes with a maximum estimated weight of around 114 tonnes.
The Cuvier’s beaked whale is the only member of the genus Ziphius and the most widely distributed of all the beaked whales. It is one of the most frequently seen beached whales, despite preferring deep pelagic waters, usually deeper than 1,000 m.
They dwell in the Mediterranean and regularly venture into the Adriatic. However, they usually stay in open waters, says Dr. Walter Kozul, from the Institute of the Sea and Coast in Dubrovnik.
Notwithstanding, they entered the narrow bay this time, and many look forward to seeing them again.
Follow our Lifestyle page to keep track of whale sightings on the Croatia Adriatic coast.
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