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Hermanus South Africa
Whale watching in South
Africa
Whale watching in Hermanus has become famous around the
world.
It has been dubbed as the best land based whale watching
spot in South Africa by very discerning & passionate
world whale watching fanatics.
Whales have been hunted by man since the beginning
of time. Eighteenth Century whaling was an extremely
dangerous occupation requiring great courage and
strength. (read the book "Moby Dick") The whalers would
approach the whale in an open rowing boat and the
'whaler' would stand in the prow and hurl the harpoon
into the whale with all his strength. The whale would
sound - dive - and then the battle of stamina would
begin. The little boat would be towed for miles and
sometime for days reaching speeds of up to 25km/h.
Whenever the whalers got the chance, they would hurl
another harpoon into the whale. Loss of blood and
physical exertion took its toll and eventually, if they
were lucky and not dumped into the sea by the threshing
tale, they would overpower the whale and put it out of
it's misery. The carcass would be hauled to the mother
ship where it would be flensed (carved up) into
manageable pieces and reduced in boilers aboard ship
into vats of whale oil. Everything of the whale was
used.
The "Right" Whale was so called because it was the
easiest of the whales to catch. It is slow moving,
inquisitive and very protective of it's young. Where
possible a baby would be killed first and then the
adults which came to it's rescue! Right Whales float
when dead which was an added advantage.
Whaling provided the fuel for the initial stages of the
Industrial Revolution. The cities of Europe and the New
World were lit by Whale Oil, which also provided the
fuel for simple cooking. This put tremendous pressure on
the whaling resource world-wide. In the 1790's the
American whalers took 3,000 whales out of False Bay in
one whaling season! Whale numbers went into decline.
Other energy sources had to be found and exploited. Coal
and oil saved the whales.
The next attack on the whales took place toward the end
of the 19th Century. Steam power, explosive harpoons and
greed heralded the death knell for the world's whales.
South Africa stopped hunting Southern Right Whales in
1935 - other countries more recently, but the pressure
is still on, with countries like Iceland and Japan
pressing hard for a resumption of whaling again. From an
estimated population off the South African coast of
about 25,000, the numbers were reduced to 50! in 1935.
Population growth is now at a healthy 6.7% - max - and
means that the population is doubling every ten years.
The population off the South African coast is
approximately 2,200, with the world population estimated
at about 5,000 - still considered vulnerable, but
recovering at maximum rate, unlike the Northern Right
Whale which has disappeared in the North Pacific Ocean.
There are only a couple of hundred specimens left in the
North Atlantic.
Some Basic Stats
Weight - 60 tons (equivalent to 10 bull elephants);
length - 16/18 meters; Ratio of food intake to body
weight over a year - 4x's body weight(cf. man - 16x's)
this means that a whale is very efficient in it's
environment compared to man; length at birth - 7 to 9
meters; gestation period - 11 months; weight at birth -
±2 tons; a baby whale drinks about 600 litres of milk a
day; grows at ±2.5cm a day; calf doubles it's weight in
first week; weight of one testicle - 500kg; length of
penis - ±3.5m; blood volume - 11,000litres; weight of
heart - 450kg; diameter of heart - 1.2m; weight of liver
- ±1 ton; age - 50 to 100 years; span of tail (flukes) -
6m; the huge tail has no bones in it - only cartilage;
distance to feeding grounds - 3,000 km; swim at 4 to
5km/h; takes 6 weeks to 2 months to get here from
feeding waters - about 4 weeks to return; food - zoo
plankton called copepods, an animal about 2mm in length;
a whale eats between 1,500 & 3,000kg of these tiny
animals a day; whales do not eat for the period they are
here in Walker Bay; whale skeleton weighs 2.5 tons;
skull weighs >750kg; the skeleton is very porous and
nearly 1/3 of the oil derived from the whale comes from
the skeleton; weight of tongue - ±5 tons; length of
bottom jaw bone - > 4.5m; height of blow - 5m; speed of
air leaving blow holes - 300km/h.
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Whale
Behaviour in Hermanus.
Cows come to the same bays in their annual migration.
They come close in-shore two out of three years - year 1
- mate; year 2 - calve; year 3 - do not come in-shore.
The bulls do not come to the same bays, but tend to come
in-shore futher west each year. This ensures global
species integrity, preventing gene pool isolation.
Whales were off our coast all year according to old
whaling records. Numbers peaked during calving and
mating. As their numbers increase, we are seeing a
return to that ancient pattern again. We used to say the
whales were here from July to November, but these days
arrivals can be as early as April and some whales linger
until mid January.
Why do they migrate?
Acknowledged reasons: Baby whales do not have the thick
insulation of blubber that the adult's have - the
Southern Oceans are too cold for them even though their
skin is ±2cm thick and their blubber is ±7cm thick. Also
a baby whale can only hold it's breath for ±5minutes
(adults up to ±45 min.). It is also relatively weak and
lacks stamina: the stormy Southern Oceans are too rough
for them. They come into the relatively calm waters off
our coast and keep to the calm leeward side of the bays.
For the last couple of years we have had baby whales
drown in stormy seas.
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Additional reasons (personal opinion)
1. Part of the Global Nutrient Chain. 25,000 whales
consuming ±2,500kg of zoo plankton a day and migrating
to live off our coast for 4 or 5 months each year, bring
a lot of nutrients to the coast. Over a million years
this represents a significant "topping up" which, if it
hadn't taken place would represent a serious loss of
nutrients to the coast. This would affect the viability
of the coastal eco-system.
2. "Flossing" their baleen. The cavernous mouth of the
whale defies the imagination. The jaw is >5 meters and
the baleen plates are up to 3 meters long - up to 300 of
them! These hang like a curtain from the top jaw. Plates
10mm thick and 10mm apart and up to 200mm wide and 3m
long. A mouth that large has a huge amount of space for
all sorts of rubbish to get stuck in and for fungus to
grow. Sand blasting - rinsing the mouth out with sand
once a year would "floss" the baleen. Whales are to be
seen in numbers off the sandy beaches, head down on the
sand, generating vast clouds of sand as they go through
this annual clean up.
Calving: When dolphins calve they swim through the water
rotating like a cork-screw. This spinning motion seems
to help with the birth. During calving, the whale cow
goes into a vertical position, also rotating all the
while. She is accompanied by two or three "mid-wives"
who are in close proximity during this process. There
are sentries posted - one at about 500m and another at
about 1 km.
Mating: Unlike most mammals, the bulls do not fight for
the right to have access to the cows. Such huge animals
would injure themselves, perhaps mortally if they
displayed aggressive behaviour toward each other.
Nevertheless nature does require the strong and healthy
to father the next generation. This is attained by
"sperm dominance" which is achieved by frequency of
mating - the last to mate being the father. In other
words the male that has the stamina to keep on mating
with the cow, again and again, thus ensuring he is the
last to mate with her will father the baby.
Play: Mothers have been observed playing with their
young for hours at a time. The cow lies on her back. The
baby launches itself onto the mother's belly where it is
held by the mother between her flippers. Wriggling off,
the play is repeated over and over. Fun & Games! Babies
also drape their tales over the mother's back and can
lie like that for ages.
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Whale watching
Experiences in Hermanus.
A fisherman on a ski-boat noticed a whale coming toward
him. He had several lines out so immediately started
reeling in as he was afraid that the whale would swim
into the lines and become entangled. He got them all in
except one. The whale was 20m off and set to swim under
the boat and into the fishing line. At the last moment
it veered off to one side. He swears that the whale was
aware of the line and that’s why it turned aside - on
previous occasions, when there were no lines out whales
had swum under his boat. Can a huge 16m creature sense a
fishing line a mere fraction of a millimetre in
diameter?
Boys were surfing off a lonely beach. Then an expert
arrived on the scene - a huge whale. To show that it was
master of it's environment it surfed with them - on it's
side, front and back!
Men were taking out perlemoen (abalone). Engrossed in
the task at hand they were oblivious to the approaching
whale. Then suddenly their space was being overwhelmed
by this massive presence. The whale was fascinated by
what they were doing and was watching their every move.
Written by Jim Wepener Hermanus.
HERMANUS
WHALE FESTIVAL
The Hermanus Whale Festival normally takes place in &
around September and over a 4 day period the seaside
village will become a smorgasbord of music, theatre,
arts and crafts.
The southern right whales are the main attraction and
come to the coastline to calve and nurse their young
between July and November. David Carwadine coined the
phrase of Hermanus being the best land based whale
watching spot in the world.
Food lovers can be found sipping a glass of wine and
watching demonstrations in the Woolworths Chef’s Theatre
, music lovers can be found at the amphitheatre where
free entertainment is provided and even children are
catered for at Kidzone. (Link with more info about
Kidzone.)
Capt. Paul Watson (co-founder of
Greenpeace and founder of the Seashepherd Conservation)
has been the guest speaker and has educated all regarding the international whale
saving operations. Society enthrall audiences with his
fascinating stories about marine life and the
conservation thereof.
The Hermanus Whale festival is the only enviro-arts
festival in the world, and as such places great emphasis
on environmental education. More than 3000 children have
participated in an environmental workshop sponsored by
the winnings of Hermanus being the cleanest town.
The Hermanus Whale Festival boasts with a further
attraction in the form of Zoleli Baleni, the only whale
crier in the world. Baleni has just been appointed and
is set to become the most photographed man in Hermanus
and eager tourists follow him for a photo opportunity
and some whale secrets.
Not only does Hermanus have whales, it also offers 1 800
ha of pristine mountain and coastal fynbos at the
Fernkloof Nature Reserve.
The festival is aimed at community participation and
Glynis van Rooyen, festival chairperson, brilliantly
invented the Welcome the Whales Wave. For two
consecutive years between 2 500 and 3 500 people have
joined hands to form a human chain along the Cliff Path.
The event made the front page of the Cape Argus in 2004
and was screened on e-tv in both 2004 and 2005. It was
also runner-up in the Proudly South African home-grown
awards in the innovative market category.
Proceeds of t-shirts sales (R20 000) were donated to the
Cliff Path Management Group towards the upgrade of the
Cliff Path in previous years.
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