Whales have been hunted by man since the beginning of time. Eighteenth Century whaling was an extremely dangerous occupation requiring great courage and strength. ( read the book "Moby Dick")

The whalers would approach the whale in an open rowing boat and the 'whaler' would stand in the prow and hurl the harpoon into the whale with all his strength. The whale would sound - dive - and then the battle of stamina would begin. The little boat would be towed for miles and sometime for days reaching speeds of up to 25km/h. Whenever the whalers got the chance, they would hurl another harpoon into the whale. Loss of blood and physical exertion took its toll and eventually, if they were lucky and not dumped into the sea by the threshing tale, they would overpower the whale and put it out of it's misery. The carcass would be hauled to the mother ship where it would be flensed (carved up) into manageable pieces and reduced in boilers aboard ship into vats of whale oil. Everything of the whale was used. The "Right" Whale was so called because it was the easiest of the whales to catch. It is slow moving, inquisitive and very protective of it's young. Where possible a baby would be killed first and then the adults which came to it's rescue! Right Whales float when dead which was an added advantage

Whaling provided the fuel for the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution. The cities of Europe and the New World were lit by Whale Oil, which also provided the fuel for simple cooking. This put tremendous pressure on the whaling resource world-wide. In the 1790's the American whalers took 3,000 whales out of False Bay in one whaling season! Whale numbers went into decline. Other energy sources had to be found and exploited. Coal and oil saved the whales.

The next attack on the whales took place toward the end of the 19th Century. Steam power, explosive harpoons and greed heralded the death knell for the world's whales. South Africa stopped hunting Southern Right Whales in 1935 - other countries more recently, but the pressure is still on, with countries like Iceland and Japan pressing hard for a resumption of whaling again. From an estimated population off the South African coast of about 25,000, the numbers were reduced to 50! in 1935.

Population growth is now at a healthy 6.7% - max - and means that the population is doubling every ten years. The population off the South African coast is approximately 2,200, with the world population estimated at about 5,000 - still considered vulnerable, but recovering at maximum rate, unlike the Northern Right Whale which has disappeared in the North Pacific Ocean. There are only a couple of hundred specimens left in the North Atlantic.

Statistics

Weight - 60 tons (equivalent to 10 bull elephants); length - 16/18 meters; Ratio of food intake to body weight over a year - 4x's body weight(cf. man - 16x's) this means that a whale is very efficient in it's environment compared to man; length at birth - 7 to 9 meters; gestation period - 11 months; weight at birth - ±2 tons; a baby whale drinks about 600 litres of milk a day; grows at ±2.5cm a day; calf doubles it's weight in first week; weight of one testicle - 500kg; length of penis - ±3.5m; blood volume - 11,000litres; weight of heart - 450kg; diameter of heart - 1.2m; weight of liver - ±1 ton; age - 50 to 100 years; span of tail (flukes) - 6m; the huge tail has no bones in it - only cartilage; distance to feeding grounds - 3,000 km; swim at 4 to 5km/h; takes 6 weeks to 2 months to get here from feeding waters - about 4 weeks to return; food - zoo plankton called copepods, an animal about 2mm in length; a whale eats between 1,500 & 3,000kg of these tiny animals a day; whales do not eat for the period they are here in Walker Bay; whale skeleton weighs 2.5 tons; skull weighs >750kg; the skeleton is very porous and nearly 1/3 of the oil derived from the whale comes from the skeleton; weight of tongue - ±5 tons; length of bottom jaw bone - > 4.5m; height of blow - 5m; speed of air leaving blow holes - 300km/h

Cows come to the same bays in their annual migration. They come close in-shore two out of three years - year 1 - mate; year 2 - calve; year 3 - do not come in-shore. The bulls do not come to the same bays, but tend to come in-shore futher west each year. This ensures global species integrity, preventing gene pool isolation.

Whales were off our coast all year according to old whaling records. Numbers peaked during calving and mating. As their numbers increase, we are seeing a return to that ancient pattern again. We used to say the whales were here from July to November, but these days arrivals can be as early as April and some whales linger until mid January.

Migration

Baby whales do not have the thick insulation of blubber that the adult's have - the Southern Oceans are too cold for them even though their skin is ±2cm thick and their blubber is ±7cm thick. Also a baby whale can only hold it's breath for ±5minutes (adults up to ±45 min.). It is also relatively weak and lacks stamina: the stormy Southern Oceans are too rough for them. They come into the relatively calm waters off our coast and keep to the calm leeward side of the bays. For the last couple of years we have had baby whales drown in stormy seas

Calving : When dolphins calve they swim through the water rotating like a cork-screw. This spinning motion seems to help with the birth. During calving, the whale cow goes into a vertical position, also rotating all the while. She is accompanied by two or three "mid-wives" who are in close proximity during this process. There are sentries posted - one at about 500m and another at about 1 km.

Mating: Unlike most mammals, the bulls do not fight for the right to have access to the cows. Such huge animals would injure themselves, perhaps mortally if they displayed aggressive behaviour toward each other. Nevertheless nature does require the strong and healthy to father the next generation. This is attained by "sperm dominance" which is achieved by frequency of mating - the last to mate being the father. In other words the male that has the stamina to keep on mating with the cow, again and again, thus ensuring he is the last to mate with her will father the baby.

Play: Mothers have been observed playing with their young for hours at a time. The cow lies on her back. The baby launches itself onto the mother's belly where it is held by the mother between her flippers. Wriggling off, the play is repeated over and over. Fun & Games! Babies also drape their tales over the mother's back and can lie like that for ages.

HERMANUS WHALE FESTIVAL

The 16th Hermanus Whale Festival will be kicking off on 21 September 2007 and over a 4 day period the seaside village will become a smorgasbord of music, theatre, arts and crafts. The southern right whales are the main attraction and come to the coastline to calve and nurse their young between July and November. David Carwadine coined the phrase of Hermanus being the best land based whale watching spot in the world. Visit the informative Whale Festival site at www.whalefestival.co.za Food lovers can be found sipping a glass of wine and watching demonstrations in the Woolworths Chef's Theatre (link to Woolworths), music lovers can be found at the amphitheatre where free entertainment is provided and even children are catered for at Kidzone.

This year saw guest speaker Capt. Paul Watson (co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of the Seashepherd Conservation Society enthrall audiences with his fascinating stories about marine life and the conservation thereof. Visit their site at www.seashepherd.org to read more about this captivating man and his continued and daring efforts to preserve marine life. Add your name to the list of people opposing the slaughter of whales. The Hermanus Whale festival is the only enviro-arts festival in the world, and as such places great emphasis on environmental education. More than 3000 children have participated in an environmental workshop sponsored by the winnings of Hermanus being the cleanest The Hermanus Whale Festival boasts with a further attraction in the form of Zoleli Baleni, the only whale crier in the world. Baleni has just been appointed and is set to become the most photographed man in Hermanus and eager tourists follow him for a photo opportunity and some whale secrets. Not only does Hermanus have whales, it also offers 1 800 ha of pristine mountain and coastal fynbos at the Fernkloof Nature Reserve. The festival is aimed at community participation and Glynis van Rooyen, festival chairperson, brilliantly invented the Welcome the Whales Wave. For two consecutive years between 2 500 and 3 500 people have joined hands to form a human chain along the Cliff Path. The event made the front page of the Cape Argus in 2004 and was screened on e- tv in both 2004 and 2005. It was also runner-up in the Proudly Pay a visit to the festival website at www.whalefestival.co.za