It's whale season in Cape Town
posted by Paul
From about June or July (but mostly at this time of the year) our bays come alive with whales, until December, when the water becomes uncomfortably warm. The most common of these visitors is the Southern Right Whale. Most will know that between the 11th century and the mid 1900s whaling claimed the lives of many of these peaceful animals. What you may not know is that up until 1937 recorded killings alone had amounted to a shocking 93,300 whales - nearly rendering the Right Whale extinct.
Between 1980 and 1984 legislation was introduced into South Africa to ban harming the animals in any way, and according to simonstown.com, it's even illegal to be within 300 metres of a whale (with a watercraft)!
Thanks Brad for stopping off in Kalk Bay to bring us this photo of a Southern Right Whale. Brad told us that there were plenty of whales frolicking in the bay yesterday.
7 Comments:
Super capture and I so wish we were there to get our own photo's.
Managed to get a few last year but we'll miss them this year!!
How awesome these creatures are.
My wife just returned from Hermanus. She was telling me about the whales that she saw close up. Certainly a fascinating sight.
What's even better is to be fortunate enough to hear them late at night when they blow water out of their 'Blowholes'?
The sound drifts up from the ocean on the still nights, lucky as the south easter will only start blowing again tomorrow or sunday.
Will miss them when they are gone, really cool creatures,
http://www.simonstown.bundublog.com
Beautiful!
This brings memories from last year. We saw a whale making several jumps near Cape Town but unfortunately my camera was so slow to focus that I only got photos of splashing water.
Soon after I returned home, I bought myself a proper DSLR camera. The whale and a lion in Kruger national park were the main reasons for the purchase.
That's a fantastic capture. We have whale watch and shark watch here, but nothing on this level. Just stunning.
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