It’s not the first time it’s happened, but it’s always surprising. The Marine Surveillance Service of the Generalitat Valenciana reported this Monday the sighting, around 12 noon, of a group of 3 fin whales in the vicinity of the Albufera Natural Park, on the beaches south of Valencia.
The sighting occurred about 2 miles offshore, as it moved southward, within the marine Special Area of Conservation, which encompasses the park’s coastline.
Sightings of the second largest animal in the world, after the blue whale, are most common between May and August.
In 2023, almost a hundred detections of these animals were recorded on the Valencian coast, especially in the south (Valencia, Gandía, Cullera and the Marina Alta region). The Cap de Sant Antoni Marine Reserve, in Dénia, is a regular sighting point for fin whales.
The exhibition “L’Ull de la balena”, a temporary exhibition of scientific photography that presents the research of Elena Vecino and her team on the cells of the retina of a cetacean of 18 meters and 20 tons that stranded on the beach of Atxabiribil, in Sopelana (Vizcaya) in 2019, can be visited until September 30 at the Museum of Natural Sciences of Valencia.