Whale Watch

The Imbituba area, which is 80 km south from Florianópolis, hosts a noble visitor from July to November: the Arctic Right Whales (Eubalaena mysticetus) come to our coast to give birth and feed their young. Every year the Arctic Right Whales visit the seashore of Santa Catarina between July and November. Here is their natural birthplace, since they find calm water and good weather temperature to give birth. There used to be about 100.000 Arctic Right Whales in the South Hemisphere and today there are only about 7.000 of this kind left. During many decades they were hunted for commercial purposes: the fins were used as corsets and their fat was made into oil for lightening the cities and manufacture of mortar. The Santa Martha’s lighthouse, a famous city in south Brazil for its historical background, is the highest building on earth built with whale oil.

The last whale tackle in Brazil was shut down in 1973. It used to be in Imbituba. It has been rebuilt and it is protected as the only Right Whale Latin-American museum. Nowadays this species can be found along the coast of Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay and Brazil.

Hiking Tours

The whale watching hiking tours need a minimum of 6 persons to happen.

The meeting point is in Praia do Rosa. This is one of the preferred places by the whales, and that´s where the main office of the Right Whale Institute is. Before each tour, a biologist will explain shortly about the habits of this giant mammal and how it impacts today in the environmental education. The explanation can be also done in English and Spanish.

After the explanation, a biologist from the institute will lead the hike to a point where we know it is possible to see the whales on that day. There is a chain of biologist monitoring the whales, then we will go directly to where we can best see them.

The travelers should bring warm clothes because of the Wind, a hat, Sun screen and comfortable shoes to hike on rocks and soft sand.

You need to request your booking at least 48 hours in advance. We need complete names, the place where you are staying and a local phone number. We will contact you one day before the tour to confirm the booking, because we depend highly on weather conditions.