Boat Based Whale  Watching (getting as close as 50 metres!)  aboard the Advantage Charter (est. 1991 in St Lucia, KZN), a legal Boat-Based Whale Watching Permit Holder  within this World Heritage Site, "The Greater St Lucia Wetland Park" (renamed in Nov 2007 to "The iSimangaliso Wetland Park") which is located on the southern most tip of the Elephant Coast, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

 THE WHALE WATCHER - Danie Bennett     ***( SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS )***

Prayer for the Whales - Click here

This is something exceptionally special, and anyone that is wanting a memory to last beyond a lifetime should pay us a visit .
Our ocean going boat, the ADVANTAGE CHARTER, a 9m+ hard hulled vessel , is built eco-friendly with passenger safety and comfort in mind powered by  2 x 250HP Suzuki engines complying with EPA standards .

In the safe hands of experienced and renowned skipper  and specialized Marine Mammal Guide Danie Bennett, you will be taken through the waves to see the gigantic HUMPBACK WHALE.

THE WHALES migrate pass this stretch of coastline between the months of mid May to mid December annually , to calf and breed in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean , moving as far as Mozambique and Madagaskar before making the journey back to the Antarctic .
You may be fortunate to witness a 40ton acrobatic HUMPBACK WHALE breaching a mere 50 meters away from the boat !!!! or maybe just swimming alongside the vessel .

SHARING TIME WITH THESE PLAYFUL GENTLE GIANTS OF THE OCEAN IS A SOUL –STIRRING EXPERIENCE, AN  INVESTMENT YOU MAKE IN YOUR OWN LIFE, AND SOMETHING NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN.

You may also see a variety of pelagic bird life, dolphin frolicking alongside the bow of the boat, sea turtles in season, shark, marlin,whale shark and other interesting marine mammals and cetacea .

We need about 3 hours of your time, of which the actual tour duration is approximately 2 hours on the ocean, and then 30 minutes  on either side to get you to-and from the launch site.
This in itself is an adventure, as you meet at a central booking office, from where you will be taken to the launch site with a 4 x 4 truck onto the beach.

 It is advisable to bring ::an extra warm jacket , although we issue lifejackets and raincoats always dress in warm comfortable quick drying clothes , bring along a towel , bottle of water , packet of biscuits  , seasick tablet if need be  , rubber / plastic shoes that you won't mind walking into the sea with .

***** From the time that you meet at the office till 3 hours later when you return from your trip , cameramen will be taking video footage of yourself and your sightings and a personalized DVD of yourself aboard the Advantage Charter can be bought at the WHALE SHOP about an hour after your return***** ADVANTAGE has a legal filming permit from Marine and Coastal Management allowing then to film and photograph whales . It's worth investing in this personalized DVD , as we cannot always guarantee that your own camera equipment is not going to be water damaged when we have seaspray on the boat . If you do however bring your own camera ,wrap it in an extra plastic bag .

Danie  , Bien and Berno has a treasure- house full of knowledgde about the Whales, and will give a full educational talk of- for instance : what part of the whale was used decades ago to make a ladies’ corset ? etc, and then a hydrophone on board will allow you to on occasion listen to the whales singing which can bring a tear to your eyes.

If you have been out at sea with Danie for the entire 2 hours and you have NOT seen any whale , you will get 40% of your money refunded the moment you return to the office . Please do make sure that you go with a legal operator like ADVANTAGE , South Africa only DOES have 9 legal Boat Based Whale Watching permit holders, of which Advantage is currently still the only in KwaZulu Natal , it is the clients obligation to ensure their operator has the legal permit from Marine and Coastal Management . Don't hesitate to ask your operator for his permit .

WHALE REGULATIONS :

In terms of Regulations of the Marine Living Resources Act (1998) :

1 . It is an offence to approach any whale closer than 300m without a permit.

2 . There is only 1 LEGAL boat-based whale watching permit holder in each area.

3 . No cow-calf pairs may be approached by anyone .

4 . Clients are advised to ensure that their operator has a permit to approach whales closer than 300m.

5 . Clients on board an illegal vessel may be charged with contravening these regulations if the operator approaches a whale closer than 300m.

Your local permit holder is :

Danie Bennett
Advantage Charter
St Lucia

***SEE THE WHALE TAILS BELOW - over the last 10years of operating,  Danie has been photographing the Humpback Whales, taking samples of slooth skin and DNA and sending it off to his Marine Biologist at MCM( Marine and Coastal Management) Mike Meyer, and was phoned about 3 weeks ago and told that there is a possibility that Danie has the largest collection of photographed Humpback Whale tails in the World.  He has now been invited to be part of a team of scientists who will be doing further research on the Humpback Whales that migrate between the Antarctic, the South African Coastline, especially past the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, towards Mozambique and Madagascar; at Madagascar the family group of Humpbacks seem to split up to the east and west of the continent before returning back South 6 months later.  With Danie operating on the St Lucia Coast he will be the main contact researcher on this side of the coast.  Each Whale Tail is like a human's fingerprint,  you can easily identify the whale from the specific markings under the tail....***

Interesting facts 

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Each tail has a unique marking , much like a humans’ fingerprint and this is how they identify between the whales and keep track of their migration.

Danie Bennett from Advantage Charter St Lucia has been involved with boat-based-whale-watching for the last 10years, and since the start of permitted whale watching in South Africa, he has been sending photo ID’s of the Humpback Whales spotted on his tours, Slooth skin and other data diligently to his Scientist Mike Meyer at Marine and Coastal Management in Cape Town throughout whale watching season.

Marine and Coastal Management, their scientists Mike Meyer, Deon Kotze and Herman Oosthuisen then in their turn work in close partnership with the IWC ( international Whaling Commission) on research of whales.

From 2001 – 2007  almost  93% ( ninety three percent ) of the data received by MCM has come from Danie and his whale watching crew in St Lucia, and he has now been chosen to be part of a team of scientists to do research on the Humpback Whales migrating along the Northern KwaZulu Natal coastline.

Scientists will be based in St Lucia, Mozambique and Madagascar, and they will compare their sightings - DNA from samples that Advantage has sent in to MCM previously have been linked with DNA from family groups of Humpback migrating past east and west Madagascar and even the West Coast of Africa.

The Humpback and Southern Right Whales leave their feeding grounds at the Antarctic in our winter months to come and breed and calf along our coastline, as our water temperatures is warmer for the calf’s, by the end of the whale watching season they have reached a decent weight and have enough blubber to help them survive the cold waters of the Antarctic.  Whale and Dolphins have layers of fatty blubber which act as an insulation between the warm body core and the lower water temperature.  New born calfs don’t have this layer of blubber yet, therefore they spend their first months in the warm water of the Indian Ocean drinking up to approximately 600liters of milk per day to grow at a tremendous rate and build up enough blubber before migrating back to the Antarctic.

Boat-Based-Whale-Watching has a self regulatory body SABBWWA ( South African Boat Based Whale Watching Association ) which is acknowledged by Marine and Coastal Management, as MCM is the government organization that issues the Boat-Based-Whale Watching permits. [Advantage Tours & Charters]  Each operator has to adhere to a strict code of conduct around the whales and permit holders are expected to supply MCM monthly with data on the daily sightings.

Whale Watching in general along the KwaZulu Natal Coast is still not marketed well enough, and therefore a large amount of our general public inland still don’t know they can do Whale Watching in KZN.  We want to invite people to enjoy the whales along the St Lucia coast, visiting St Lucia between June and end of November is a must and in this area so many other things like the Big 5 and the Hippo/Croc Trips on the St Lucia Estuary, visits to Cape Vidal etc to do whilst coming whale watching with Advantage Tours.

In terms of Marine Living Resources Act 1998 :

• it is an offense to approach a whale closer than 300m’s without a permit.

• There is only one legal boat-based-whale-watching permit holder in each area.

• No cow-calf pairs may be approached by anyone.

• Clients are advised to ensure that their operator has a permit to approach whales closer than 300m’s.

• Clients on board an illegal vessel may be charged with contravening these regulations if the operator approaches a whale closer 300m’s.

• Your local legal permit holder for St Lucia KwaZulu Natal is : Advantage Tours, Danie Bennett

Advantage Tours is currently still the only legal boat-based-whale-watching operator in KwaZulu Natal, the other legal operators fall with the Eastern and Western Cape Province allowed to do boat-based-whale-watching from as close as 50m’s from the 5^th largest mammal that has lived this earth, the HUMPBACK WHALE.

 Whale watching in South Africa