The Cape Whale Coast

The Southern Right Whale

Every winter they travel thousands of kilometres from the Antarctic to calve in the bays on our doorstep and give this coast its name.

We work on the Cape Whale Coast and the name isn’t marketing. Every winter, hundreds of southern right whales travel thousands of kilometres from the Antarctic to calve and mate in the sheltered bays on our doorstep. Their return shapes the season here: the towns fill, the cliff paths busy up, and the bay fills with animals the size of buses, often close enough to watch without binoculars.

It’s a genuine privilege to practise somewhere like this, so here’s a little about the whales that give this coast its name.

Why they come here

Southern right whales spend the summer months feeding in the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Southern Ocean, building up the energy reserves they need for the year. As winter approaches they migrate north to the warmer, sheltered bays of the southern African coast, not to feed, but to mate and to calve. Walker Bay and the bays along this coast are calm and shallow, which makes them among the finest whale nurseries in the world.

They are baleen whales and filter feeders, taking krill and copepods by skimming steadily through swarms of prey with an open mouth. Mostly black, many carry a white blaze on the belly, and each animal is identifiable by the unique pattern of rough patches of skin called callosities, on its head, which is how researchers tell individuals apart year after year.

The name, and a difficult history

They were called “right” whales because whalers considered them the right whale to hunt: slow-moving, close to shore, rich in oil and baleen, and inclined to float when killed. That combination was catastrophic. Whalers worked these waters from as early as the 1770s, and by the time commercial whaling of the species was stopped in 1935, studies suggest the South African population had been reduced to as few as a few dozen breeding females.

Under protection, the population has recovered steadily, growing at roughly 6–7% a year over the decades. It’s one of conservation’s better stories, though not a finished one: researchers have recorded worrying recent changes, including longer intervals between calves and poorer body condition, thought to be linked to shifting conditions in the Southern Ocean feeding grounds.

Watching them

Hermanus is widely regarded as one of the best places on earth for land-based whale watching. The cliffs of Walker Bay put you level with animals that are often only tens of metres offshore, no boat required. The 12 km cliff path runs from the New Harbour to Grotto Beach, with viewpoints like Gearing’s Point and Siever’s Point along the way, and the town still has a Whale Crier who sounds a kelp horn when whales are spotted.

Look out for breaching (launching clear of the water), lobtailing (slapping the tail on the surface), spyhopping (raising the head to look around) and sailing (holding the tail up in the air). Licensed boat operators run from the New Harbour and are required to keep their distance, though the whales themselves often close it.

Learn more

If you’d like to go deeper, these are three credible places to start:

Research

MRI Whale unit

The University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit, based in Hermanus, has monitored this population since 1969, one of the longest continuous marine mammal datasets in the world.

Conservation

CapeNature

The Western Cape’s conservation authority, responsible for the reserves and marine protected areas along this coast, including De Hoop, a key southern right nursery.

Visiting

Hermanus Tourism

Local information on the whales, the season, the cliff path viewpoints and the annual Whale Festival which is useful if you’re planning to come and see them.

Facts on this page are drawn from publicly available sources including the MRI Whale Unit and Hermanus Tourism. Figures are indicative and change as research progresses.