Richard Collins: 'Whispers' in the whale maternity ward

Each year Southern right whales move to a shallow warm bay where mothers and calves can converse without being overheard — and attacked — by orcas 

A southern right whale breaches the water at Hermanus, east of Cape Town, South Africa. Picture: Dave Fish/Bloomberg News

Hermanus is a seaside resort on Walker Bay, 122km east of Cape Town. Between June and November, winter in the Southern hemisphere, it becomes one of the world’s most celebrated whale-watching venues. At locations elsewhere in the world, the ocean giants remain well out to sea, requiring boat trips to encounter them but, in Hermanus, the whales come right in to the shore and can be watched, up close and personal, from excellent vantage points. There can be up to 70 whales in the bay on occasion. The local council even employs a ‘whale crier’ who blows a horn, made from local kelp, alerting people that a whale is approaching.

The species which displays itself so readily off the African coast is the ‘Southern right whale’. The whalers deemed it the ‘right’ whale to catch because tame and trusting, it could be approached and harpooned easily. The carcass floated, was easily retrieved, and yielded plenty of oil.