I had the privilege yesterday of accompanying the boat in search of a "dead’’ whale – Danie got a phone call from one of the fisherman fishing in the competition off Mapelane, and he thought he saw either a very sick or dead whale just lying in the water – we got all the cameras and the whole disentanglement unit case together and launched at mid-day – after about an hour at sea we couldn’t find this ‘dead’ whale  - we again phoned our fisherman friend, who pointed out another location just south of the Jolly Rubino – IT TURNED OUT TO BE a very much alive SOUTHERN RIGHT sleeping visitor!The Southern Right whales are much more dossile than the Humpback Whales so from a distance they do appear to be ‘dead’, this whale was lying deadstil as well, because it was sleeping, and that is why our fisherman friend thought it could have been dead. The Humpback Whales are also the more acrobatic of all the species -It’s only about 12-13 times a season that we are blessed to have a visit from the Southern Right Whales, they are more frequent along the Cape Coastline!

The Southern Right can grow up to about 60tons, has the huge callosities which makes it more easily identifiable, has highly arched jaws, and no dorsal fin. The callosities are huge whitish, wart-like and are patches of thickened skin on the head to which barnacles attach and from which individuals are recognized. Great courtship displays include the male leaping almost clear of the water ( know as breaching ), beating the water surface with its tail aloft for several minutes ( we are seeing these kinds of displays almost daily now with the Humpbacks as well ) . As single calf is born ( 5-6m’s in length ) dependant on the mother and suckles for at least 6 months, growing about 3cm a day and feeding on almost 600litres of milk per day. Calves may be completely white. Females produce a calf on average once every 3 years. This species has a characteristic V-shaped blow.

Same as every other day the sightings awesome – with going on the boat again yesterday I realized it’s not practical to take a camera unless you have a waterproof casing like we do, so it’s worth investing in the additional R250-00 personalized dvd that gets made of every trip. Even if nothing else, take your bathing costumes and get onto the beach, we have the BEST days, with lost of sunshine that won’t burn the skin off your body!

PLEASE REMEMBER DUE TO THE FAR DISTANCE WE HAVE TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE BEACH TO MAPELANE AND THE ASTRONOMICAL FUEL INCREASES THE RATE SINCE THE 1st OF JULY IS R700-00p.p and not R660-00 anymore …IT’s STILL WORHT EVERY CENT THOUGH, just ask around and you’ll have smily-faced whale watchers all around!

** I forgot to mention that we also saw flying fish yesterday whilst out searching  for that whale – about 20 flying fish simultaneously came out of the water and flew alongside the boat for about 100m’s before going back into the water…**