I decided ( ha ha, liewer laat as nooit ) to give a little bit of interesting information about the HUMPBACK WHALES that we spot this time of the year.

The weather at the moment a.w.e.s.o.m.e , and after the previous weeks' strong winds we seem to have excellent weather conditions at the moment, but as you've all maybe noticed town is quite quiet at the moment. The sea temperature at the moment about 21 degrees, our night temperatures about 21 degrees and the day temperatures around 25-32 degrees ( yes , we've all felt the return of summer , especially at night the humidity is quite high and Eskom coining it again as we've started to switch the air conditioners back on ).

About 25 SALMON fishes yesterday tried to get out of the Mouth area back into the ocean , (they came in across the Mouth area with the high tide and when the tide turned low couldn't get back out to sea again), and with the Mouth so "closed" they were stuck on the sand and started dying  , we and our staff tried to pick up as many Salmon as possible and released them back into the ocean  , some were unfortunately dead already , but a lot were saved !.....anyway ....back to the WHALES ....

Bien saw 3 HUMPBACK whales from as close as 50m's  on the 06h00  WHALE WATCHING trip on the 9th of September, they were still swimming north which is a possible indication that it is mothers moving towards Mozambique and Madagascar to calf.

So far for this season between Danie , Bien and Berno they have recorded a sighting of about 823 HUMPBACK WHALES , ( remember those are only the whales that they can actually count when doing a tour , many days there is whales going past and we don't have trips , OR the weather is bad and we can't get out to count the whales , so this obviously just what we saw , counted , collected skin samples from and photographed on trips actually done).

HUMPBACK FACTS:

Scientific Name:     Megaptera novaeangliae

Maximum length:    52 feet

 Weight:                 approx 40 ton

 Tail (fluke) width:   15 feet

 Flipper length:        15 feet

 Daily Ton:              1 ton

Calf's Daily diet:     100-600 liter of milk -depending on the age - calves drinking from the mother for the first year and thereafter starting to feed

WHO IS IN THEIR FAMILY?

 Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are all members of the Cetacean order of mammals. Two sub-orders of Cetacea exist today, baleen whales (mysticetes) and toothed whales (odontocetes). Humpbacks, like blues and grays, are baleen whales. Toothed whales include killer whales, dolphins and porpoises.

 Further updates and information will be passed on the next e-mail