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Timor Information Channels · Nature & Wildlife

Whales & Dolphins of the Ombai-Wetar Strait

One of the planet's great cetacean highways runs a few kilometres off Dili — twenty-plus species, and blue whales in season.

Why this channel

What you will learn here

It is Timor-Leste's single most bookable wildlife experience and the strongest reason to visit between October and December.

Four short filmed conversations with the people who know this subject first-hand are being produced for this page by Stays of Timor. Each is two to three minutes — honest, local, and recorded in Timor-Leste.

The interviews

Four conversations, four angles

🎥Interview coming soon
Interview 1Why the whales come this way

The bathymetry and currents that make Ombai-Wetar a migration corridor.

🎥Interview coming soon
Interview 2Who's out there: twenty-plus species

Identifying the residents and the migrants, from spinner dolphins to sperm whales.

🎥Interview coming soon
Interview 3Watching without disturbing

The code of conduct, boat behaviour, and the risk unregulated tourism poses.

🎥Interview coming soon
Interview 4Listening to the ocean

Acoustics, hydrophones, and what whale song reveals about who is passing.

In pictures

Nature & Wildlife

Reef line from the air
Reef line from the air
Snorkellers in clear water
Snorkellers in clear water
Mangrove water
Mangrove water
The wild east
The wild east

Photos: Ministry of Tourism & Environment, Timor-Leste

Part of the Timor Information Channels — 28 subjects, told by the people who know them. Produced by Stays of Timor.