Where can you see the Blue Whale?
Some of the best places to see the Blue Whale in the wild include Lemaire Channel (Antarctica), Parque Nacional de Galápagos (Ecuador) and South Spitsbergen National Park (Norway) — among 11 wildlife hotspots across Norway, the United States, Antarctica, Ecuador and Mexico. Every hotspot below shows real sighting data and the best seasons to visit.
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
Alaska, United States
+391 birds+58 mammals
Where the North Pacific collides with Alaska's rugged coastline, a sprawling archipelago of islands, rocky outcrops, and coastal headlands forms one of North America's most remote…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYChannel Islands National Park
Santa Barbara County, United States
+330 birds+15 mammals
A chain of eight volcanic islands rises from the cold Pacific waters off the California coast, their rugged sea cliffs and windswept terrain shaped by millions…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKDeception Island
Gabriel de Castilla Base, Antarctica
+26 birds+10 mammals
Steaming geothermal vents pierce a landscape of blackened volcanic sand and ice, where the earth's raw power still trembles beneath your feet. This horseshoe-shaped caldera, flooded…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGOEl Vizcaíno
Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico
+317 birds+29 mammals
Where the Baja California peninsula thins into a tapestry of salt lagoons and coastal desert, one of Mexico's most biodiverse reserves sprawls across half a million…
VIEW BIOSPHERE RESERVEFarallon National Wildlife Refuge
San Francisco, United States
+384 birds+16 mammals
Windswept granite peaks rising abruptly from the Pacific, the Farallon Islands form a wildlife sanctuary of extraordinary seabird abundance and ecological significance just twenty-seven miles west…
VIEW WILDLIFE SANCTUARYForlandet National Park
Vera, Norway
+38 birds+12 mammals
Windswept Arctic tundra meets jagged coastal cliffs where the Barents Sea crashes against Norway's northernmost wilderness. This sliver of protected terrain on the Nordkapp Peninsula comprises…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKLemaire Channel
Orne Harbour, Antarctica
+25 birds+13 mammals
Where granite peaks plunge into steel-grey waters, the Lemaire Channel carves one of Antarctica's most dramatic passages. This narrow strait, squeezed between the Antarctic Peninsula and…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPENorthern Isfjorden National Park
Norway
+40 birds+12 mammals
Where the Arctic fjord system cuts deep into Svalbard's northwestern coast, Northern Isfjorden National Park protects a landscape of stark geological drama—towering cliff faces, tidewater glaciers,…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNorthwest Spitsbergen National Park
Norway
+58 birds+17 mammals
Where the High Arctic converges with the Norwegian mainland, Northwest Spitsbergen National Park sprawls across one of Earth's most extreme and pristine wildernesses. Crowned by jagged…
VIEW NATIONAL PARK