Yay! They’re Back. The Southern Right Whales in South Africa
Last winter the question on everyone’s lips was “Where are the whales?”… The number of southern right whales visiting our shores has been lower than average for a few years now and in 2016 appeared to be way down even from the previous year. This was confirmed by the official count from the Mammal Research Institute […]
Last winter the question on everyone’s lips was “Where are the whales?”… The number of southern right whales visiting our shores has been lower than average for a few years now and in 2016 appeared to be way down even from the previous year.
This was confirmed by the official count from the Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit which recorded just 119 southern right whales (of which 55 were calves) in their 2016 annual aerial survey conducted between Nature’s Valley and Cape Point, with the survey done in peak season.
So the big question is what will happen this year?
Yesterday we had perfect flying weather along the Overberg coast so James McHarg and I flew up to Hermanus, collected Dr. Els Vermeulen from the Whale Unit and spent nearly 7 hours in the air conducting a preliminary aerial survey between Hawston and Witsand.
Bearing in mind that it is still early in the season and we flew only as far as the Breede River, numbers are already looking far better than last year with a total count of 237 southern right whales (of which 64 were calves).
The highest numbers were recorded in the shallow waters of the De Hoop Marine Protected Area.
(Shore based viewing is possible from Koppie Alleen within the De Hoop Collection Nature Reserve).
We also spotted a couple of baitballs and several pods of humpback dolphins but not even a single great white shark!
We landed back in Cape Town with the answer we had been hoping for… They’re back!
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All photos and text © Jean Tresfon, republished here with Jean’s kind permission.
JEAN TRESFON is a South African marine conservation photographer who specialises in aerial and underwater photography. He flies several times a week specifically to keep tabs on our South African marine wildlife and regularly assists the authorities with shark and whale spotting.
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