About our whales...

Speaking of our whales, who are here until November / December before leaving for their summer home in the waters around the South Pole, did you know that the southern right whale was so named owing to its popularity among whalers? They referred to it as the “the right whale” to shoot or harpoon, owing to its slow swimming speed and propensity to drift on top of the waves when dead. Thankfully, the Southern right whaler, of which there are only about 3000 left in the world today, is now officially recognized as a protected species and not allowed to be hunted.

Something else about the Southern right whale when it’s not performing spectacular tricks such as breaching, lobtailing, logging, spouting and blowing, and spyhopping, it’s probably just underneath the water where it can spend lengthy periods unmoving. In case you’re wondering, breaching is when a whale leaps and even twirls around above the water. Lobtailing is the activity of swinging the tail out of the water and then slapping it loudly on the surface. Logging whales are those lying in the water with their heads and backs exposed but their tails hanging down; spouting or blowing is the process of blasting water out of the blowholes (nostrils) on top of their heads. Unlike other whale species, the Southern right has two, rather than one blowhole.

Lastly, whales which poke their heads out of the water, possibly to see what’s happening above, are said to be spyhopping. Southern right whales, which are considered to be adults at the age of ten, can live for a hundred years and grow to lengths of 16 metres or more. The males are about a metre shorter than the females, and newborn calves between 5 and 6 metres long. Mothers give birth “tail first” every one to three years, suckling their young for 12 months. Immediately after birthing, they nudge their calves up to the surface to take their first breaths. The following half an hour is spent teaching the newborn calf to swim. Like dolphins, whales communicate by means of sonar. Their clicking, grunting and whistling noises, which can be heard for miles under and above water, serve as a means of echolocation. They are also thought to communicate by breaching and by slamming their tails against the surface of the ocean, thereby producing a loud splashing sound (lobtailing). It is one of my greatest joys to watch these intelligent and stately giants of the sea frolicking just metres from the beach – we certainly live in one of the most beautiful places on earth!