Is Swimming with Whales Safe for the Animals?

Humpback whale swimming close with long pectoral fin. Photo: Chinh Le Duc, Unsplash

Being in the water near a whale is one of the most moving things the ocean can offer. An animal that large, and so clearly aware of you, quietly resets your sense of scale. It is easy to understand why so many travellers dream of it.

The honest answer to “is swimming with whales safe for the animals” is: it depends almost entirely on how the encounter is run. A careful, well-guided encounter and a careless one can look similar from a boat deck, but they land very differently on the whale. Research on noise and boats shows measurable costs when encounters are loud, close or crowded.

What are the whales actually doing out there?

Humpback whales, the species most people picture when they imagine swimming with whales, migrate long distances between colder feeding grounds and warm tropical waters where they breed and raise calves. French Polynesia, where we run our Moʻorea retreat, is one of those warm-water breeding areas in the South Pacific.

In the breeding season, mothers are nursing and protecting a calf that still has to learn to surface, breathe and swim efficiently. Humpback mothers are generally understood to feed little or not at all in the warm breeding waters, relying on stored energy. That is why resting time matters so much for them, and why a mother’s tolerance for a boat or swimmer nearby can be lower than people assume.

Why distance is not just manners, it is physiology

There is real research behind this, not only good manners. Baleen whales call at low frequencies, and ship noise overlaps the 20 to 200 Hz range they use. In one of the best-known studies, researchers took advantage of an unusual moment: after 11 September 2001, shipping in Canada’s Bay of Fundy dropped sharply, and underwater noise fell by about 6 decibels, most of all below 150 Hz. In the same period, North Atlantic right whales had lower levels of stress-hormone metabolites in their faeces. The authors called this evidence that ship noise may be linked to chronic stress in whales. It is a correlation from one unusual event, not a controlled experiment, but it pointed the way.

A more targeted study, published in eLife in 2020, tested 42 resting humpback mother and calf pairs off Australia. A research vessel stayed 100 metres away, moving slowly, and played recorded boat noise at different levels. At high noise levels, compared with low ones, mothers spent about 30% less time resting, their breathing rate roughly doubled and their swimming speed rose by about 37%. That is a physical cost, not just a change in mood, and it happened without the boat getting any closer.

What the rules try to do

This science is behind the guidelines used in many places: keep a generous distance, never box a whale in, never put a vessel between a mother and her calf, limit how many boats are near one animal and how long they stay, and leave if the whale shows signs of disturbance.

French Polynesia is a good example of rules that are still changing. News reports from 2024 describe professional boats keeping 100 metres from a whale, private boats 300 metres, a limit of three boats approaching one whale at the same time, and a swimmer distance reported as 15 metres, changed from an earlier 30 metres. Reports do not fully agree on when each change took effect, and tourism guidance adds that you must not swim towards the whale; the whale decides. Only accredited professionals may organise in-water excursions. Please check the current rule before you travel. For the United States, see our guide to Hawaii’s whale approach rules, and for an overview, our guide to countries where swimming with whales is legal.

What a well-run encounter looks like

In practice, an ethical in-water encounter is slower and quieter than most people expect. Guides watch the whale’s behaviour rather than the clock, let the animal decide how close it wants to come, and call everyone back the moment a mother or calf signals it wants space. Sightings are never guaranteed, and a good guide is at peace with that. It is the whale’s decision, every time.

Calm swimming is part of this. Long freediving fins make a slow, quiet kick easier in open water, and a low-volume mask that does not leak means fewer splashy adjustments at the surface. Neither replaces the most important rule: stay still and let the whale choose. It is also why we only work with local experts who know the animals, seasons and rules of the waters they work in.

Small impacts add up

No wildlife encounter is completely without impact. A single careful boat may cause little disturbance, but whales meet many boats in a day and in a season, and the effects add up. This is why limits on the number of boats and swimmers matter so much: they prevent a kind of cumulative pressure that no single operator would cause alone.

It is also why we wait. Where rules are unclear or not enforced, we do not sell in-water encounters, and in some countries, like Mexico, we never sell swimming with whales at all. Watching from a quiet boat at a proper distance is still a whale encounter, and often a more honest one.

Can whale tourism actually help whales?

Done responsibly, it can, at least indirectly. Whale watching gives coastal communities a concrete economic reason to protect whale habitat, and it turns many travellers into people who care about ocean conservation afterwards. The International Whaling Commission’s Whale Watching Handbook is built around this idea, and its scientific database includes the 2020 noise study above. But the benefit only holds when vessel numbers, speeds, distances and time with each animal are truly limited. Flights and boat fuel are part of the cost, too.

The honest view

What ethical practice does is keep the impact as low as an in-water encounter allows: slow approaches, real distance, quiet engines, short visits and guides willing to end things early if the whale asks them to, in its own way.

Swimming with whales can be safe for the animals. Not by default, but by design. That difference is really the whole answer. If you would like to meet whales this way, slowly and with a small group, you can look at our small-group retreats, including Moʻorea in September 2027.

Questions people ask

Does boat noise really stress whales?

The evidence points that way. In a 2020 study, high vessel noise made resting humpback mothers rest about 30% less, breathe about twice as often and swim about 37% faster. After 9/11, lower ship noise in the Bay of Fundy coincided with lower stress-hormone levels in right whales.

How close can you swim to a whale in French Polynesia?

News reports from 2024 describe a swimmer distance of 15 metres (previously 30), professional boats at 100 metres and private boats at 300 metres, with at most three boats at one whale. Check the current rule before you travel.

Why are mother and calf pairs so sensitive?

Calves are still learning to breathe and swim efficiently, and mothers are nursing while living largely on stored energy. Lost rest has a real cost, as the 2020 study showed.

Is whale watching from a boat better than swimming?

Not automatically. Both can disturb whales if done badly. A quiet boat at a proper distance, with limits on boat numbers and time, is often the lowest-impact option, and where in-water rules are unclear, it is the one we choose.

Are whale sightings guaranteed on a retreat?

Never. Whales decide whether to appear and whether to come closer, and an honest operator will tell you that from the start.

Wildlife encounters are unpredictable. Swimming with whales should always follow local regulations and experienced professional guidance. Encounters are never guaranteed and never forced. Ocean Calling works only with vetted, ethical local operators, and every animal is free to approach, or not, entirely on its own terms.

Sources & further reading

Further reading on Ocean Calling: More from the journal · Wildlife & the law · See the retreats · Ocean Atlas