Common Dolphins And Southern Right Whales,15 November 2018

We had three tours today in beautiful conditions and two of them got to see all five of the marine animals we try to see on our tours!

On all three tours we spent most of our whale time with an incredibly calm mother southern right whale who we found near De Clyde. She had some very big callosities and was quite distinctive. She, and her very calm calf, were chilling out next to the boat on every tour. We also got to see other southern right whales on each tour as well, many of which were swimming along, taking longer dives as the mothers exercise their offspring ready to migrate south again soon. Sadly we have to report that our little lone calf was again seen alone briefly this morning before it disappeared and we did not spot it again in the bay. The prognosis for this lone youngster is sadly not at all good.

On a happier note we were very lucky on trips one and two to spot a group of around 80 common dolphins with many mother/calf pairs in the group. Seeing them feeding and travelling in the calm seas we had today was very special as we don’t see this species of dolphin all that often at this time of year. Unfortunately despite us looking for them we did not see them for the last trip.

However all three trips got to see bronze whaler sharks over by Marine Dynamics, our sister company although the shark we saw on trip one did not break the surface so was a little difficult to see.

All three tours got to see some of our very endangered African penguins either on Dyer Island, sitting huddled together on the rocks as the moult, or on trip two on the water, a juvenile and an adult.

The wind direction today gave us the full experience over by geyser rock, with the sight, sound and smell of 60,000 cape fur seals!