Words: Duncan Pritchard
It’s that time of the year again, the time of year when you can expect to start seeing thirty plus tons of marine mammals gently cruising past our gorgeous coastline. It’s whale season!
Each year thousands of Humpback Whales leave their wintering grounds in the Southern Oceans and head north, passing by the North Coast en route to Mozambique, to mate (gestation period one year) and calf (the next year). It’s a special and often impressive sight and to help you get the best out of whale spotting season, here are some of our useful tips for whale spotting on the North Coast.
The best time for viewing whales is in the early morning, when there is less wind and the ocean is flatter, making them easier to spot. Sometimes this is just a big swirl in the water, known as a whale footprint or a spray of water coming from the whale’s blowhole. But, as the day progresses and sometimes gets windy, this is the time of the day when the whales will be breaching out of the water and putting on fantastic displays. So, as a rule of thumb, early morning for the best viewing conditions, later in the day for the best displays of whale behavior.
Look out for the “blow” of water from the whale’s blowhole. This is the best sign of whale activity to be looking for as nine times out of ten, you will see the spray of water long before you see the whale itself, especially if the whale is swimming quite far offshore, which they often do when migrating north and as they start moving south in our spring, they tend to come a lot closer inshore.
A useful little “trick” to know, you can identify different whale species by the spray they produce, Humpbacked Whales produce a pear shaped spray that goes up to 3m into the air, compared to the Southern Right Whale (which are also seen along the north coast, but not as common) which produces a V shaped spray that only goes a meter or so into the air.
You can spot whales from virtually anywhere, we have seen them breaching whilst driving at 120km/h down the M4 and we have seen distant spray while sitting at a view point waiting for hours. There is a bit of luck involved, but as a good rule, during the months of July to October, if you get yourself into a nice elevated position and sit watching the ocean for a couple of hours, you’re almost certain to see a whale doing something.
Try gauge the whale’s behavior and next move, the direction it is swimming, how fast, is it going to come up for air soon again or is it diving deep and coming up again far away? To do this, look out for the whales tail “flukes”. A whale will generally make a few shorter, shallow dives before making a deep dive. Deep dives last about 10-20 minutes, by which time; the whale could be well out of sight. A Humpback Whale making a deep dive will show you its tail flukes just before diving. If this happens, expect a long wait or look elsewhere as the whale has probably moved on.
Some other important and interesting whale watching information:
In South Africa it is illegal to approach any whale closer than 300m. If you do see boats closer than this distance, please notify Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife
Whales moving south back towards the Southern Oceans (October/November) tend to move a lot slower as the females have claves that need to feed. Theses calves, believe it or not can consume a whopping 250l of milk a day
Unlike many other whales that are filter feeders, living of microorganisms, Humpbacked Whales feed on fish that they actively hunt. When in our North Coast waters, the Humpbacked Whales rarely feed, instead, they live off the body fat they have stored up from feeding in the rich Southern Oceans over the summer.
Keep your eyes open and perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to spend some time appreciating these gracious, giant, intelligent creatures as they pass by our homes. You’re seeing one of the most ancient migrations on of one of the world’s biggest mammals on earth…..and it’s happening right on our doorstep, truly something remarkable if you think about it.
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