Full Day Hermanus Whale Tour - Cape Town

• July to November
• Hermanus
• Rooi Els
• Betty's Bay
• Die Kelders
• Southern Right Whales
• Boat-based-whale-watching
• Grabouw

All Day Tours, Overnight Tours and transfers are conducted according to the terms and conditions of TISA.

Southern Right Whales Travel Information

The largest growth is called the "bonnet" and is on the tip of the rostrum (upper jaw of the skull). Southern right whales have broad backs with no fin, a large head with an arched mouth line and large, broad flippers. The flukes have broad, smooth and concave trailing edges with a deep notch in the middle. Their skin is black/brown and they have white patches on their bellies. 

Their baleen is up to 2.8m long and is dark brown , gray or black. It can appear yellow when underwater and is lighter colored in younger animals. There are usually 220 to 260 long narrow plates with fringes of bristles in each side of the upper jaw. Southern right whales have two blowholes and when they blow it is wide and V-shaped and up to 5m high.

Field ID:
Rotund body, Callosities on large head, Head about a quarter of their body length, Baleen instead of teeth, Strongly arched mouth line, Large dark chin, Two blowholes, Very high blow/spout, Long & broad flippers, No fin, Tail flukes raised when diving, Broad flukes , Slow & deliberate swimmer, Highly acrobatic, May approach boats, Frequently lob tails and spy hops, Normally in small groups

Length (meters):
New-born calves are between 4.5 and 6 meters (14ft 9in - 19ft 9in) in length. Adults can be between 11 and 18 meters (36-59ft) long.

Weight:
At birth, the southern right whale weighs about 1 tone. Adults weigh between 30 and 80 tones.

Diet:
Krill and/or other crustaceans

Behavior:
Southern right whales are slow swimmers but are often seen partaking in acrobatic activities! They wave their flippers above the surface, breach (up to 10 times in a row), flipper-slap and lob tail. Southern right whales also tip themselves upside-down vertically and wave their flukes in the air. 'Sailing' is another popular activity, which involves using the flukes to sail in the wind! 

They sometimes swim near the surface with their mouths open, displaying their baleen. Southern right whales live in small groups of up to 12 individuals. They are more commonly found in groups of 2 or 3, though they may gather in larger groups at feeding grounds. When they are in a small group, they will often take it in turns to come to the surface. They are also known to bellow and moan when visiting breeding grounds. 

Southern right whale Distribution and Threats

Distribution:
Southern right whales live only in the Southern Hemisphere and never mix with northern right whales. They are circumpolar (i.e. found around the globe) mainly between 20°S and 55°S. They mate and calve during the winter in the inshore waters of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, southern Australia and some Southern Hemisphere islands, then migrate to waters nearer Antarctica to feed during the summer months. 

Population Size:
The whaling industry decimated the right whale population and their population size is now vulnerable (IUCN '96)

Threats:
Habitat loss, Human disturbance, Entanglement in fishing gear

Southern right whale migration:
Very little actually known about the finer details of southern right whale migration. 

Winter/Spring: During the winter and spring, they are found in their coastal mating and calving grounds. These lie mainly along the southern coasts of Africa (Hermanus, South Africa is a particularly good place to see them), South America (around Chile & Argentina - Peninsula Valdes is a well-known habitat) and in the Great Australian Bight, as well as along the western coast of New Zealand. 

Summer: Southern right whales migrate to colder food-rich waters near Antarctica for the summer, but to where exactly is not known. Most appear to stay in the mid-Southern Ocean but some do feed at the edge of the pack-ice. 

Interesting Information
The Southern Right whales are identical to their cousins. They cannot breathe through their mouths. To breathe they go to the surface and breathe thought their blowhole which is found on the top of their head. A person would think a whale can swallow a chair but it can't swallow an orange. They have got wart like things on their back. The warts never change. Whales have different patterns from each other which make them recognizable.

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