A Windless, Whale Filled, Wondrous Day,30 September 2018

The weather has really cleared up over the last few days, making for a picture perfect sea that lasted all throughout our 5 trips.  We still have tons and tons of Southern Right Whales hanging out in the shallow waters of our bay, and these moms and babies are certainly treating us to some awesome sightings.

At this age, the babies have become very playful, so we get to watch as they figure out there bodies, which makes for some fascinating insights into the lives of these marine mammals. We watched mostly Southern Right Whales today, and for the most part they seem to favour the area close to Uilenkraalsmond. Some of the highlights from today include a couple of very close passes from some curious moms and calves, who came up to have a look at our boat. We also got to see a couple of whales do some lob tailing, slapping their flukes against the water again and again. On the one tail, you can see lots of orange whale lice that have congregated in the region, perhaps going after the dead skin.

We also got to see a bit of spy hopping, with mother whales sticking their heads out the water, and on one of the tours we even had a whale stick its head and tail out at the same time. It was such a stunning day one could actually see the calves and moms from hundreds of meters away, and even as we travelled we got to see these animals rolling around, belly up.

Other highlights from today include getting to see a seal eating a Puff Adder Shyshark. We also got to see a couple of Copper Sharks checking out Slashfin as well as a Cape Gannet who was also hanging in the shallows, trying to catch a mullet or two. The Cape Cormorants were also out and about today, flying in flocks in search of fish.

We also had some African Penguins bobbing around in the water, with many of these birds being juveniles or baby blues. As for our seal colony, we got to spend a great few moments with them on every tour, but we’re sad to report that we have at least 2 entangled animals at the moment. We hope to be able to free them from the rope and plastic that they have found themselves in soon, so we’re going to keep an eye out on all of our tours.