William Stephens of De Hoop Collection announced that the first aerial count survey of the 2019 whale season showed that of the total whales seen, 90% were at De Hoop Nature Reserve.
Stephens was notified of this by Jean Tresfon, a well-known Marine Conservation photographer, and pilot of the aerial survey done by the Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit.
Tresfon reported that, “although below the number expected for this time of the year, a total of 288 southern right whales were counted, 131 females with calves and 26 adults without calves and nearly all females with calves were located in the De Hoop Nature Reserve”.
Last year Tresfon was blown away by the sightings of the southern right whales at De Hoop Nature Reserve area -from Skipskop Point to Lekkerwater – where a record-breaking 1 116 whales (558 cow/calf pairs) had been spotted – this confirmed that Koppie Alleen in De Hoop is the most important nursery area for southern right whales on the South African coast.
Of the 2018 total of about 1 400 southern right whales that were counted, approximately 200 were not in the De Hoop area. With the current count being below the number expected for this time of year, and less than last year, it is probably due to the fact that the reproduction of the whales is not back at normal levels, perhaps due to non-optimal conditions in their feeding grounds.
The next aerial survey will be done in a few weeks’ time.
“De Hoop is the best spot for whale watching in South Africa,” says Stephens, “it is clearly the whale “capital” of South Africa and at the moment it’s the only place to see the whales.”
Image source: supplied
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