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Do go to... Dear Friends of our Whales.( From the Ivanhoe Team)
Tourists and Whales
A question
that seems to be perplexing many people in Hermanus at the moment is
whether there are more tourists than whales or more whales than
tourists.
Good question
but a little difficult to answer at the moment.
At present
there seems to be a shortage of both when surveying the town and
bay.
From the air
it is clear that there is no shortage of whales along the coastline
between the Klein River lagoon mouth and De Kelders.
In past years
the whales in this area have outnumbered the whales seen front of
the town tenfold but this year it is even more noticeable.
A few whales
seem to be wandering across the bay to check out the audience along
the clifftops in front of Hermanus and most residents seem to agree
that this number is lower than previous years.
Having made
the above observation I must also add that there don’t seem to be as
many in the bay as last year at this time and definitely fewer than
2007 but this could change as the numbers are still increasing.
Hopefully
there will be far more tourists than whales shortly as there are
plenty of whales to show the them
What the
global economic situation is going to do to tourist numbers and
their spending habits is the million dollar question at the moment.
I, and most
other tourism based businesses in the area, will be able to give the
answer to this question in January 2010.
The whales are
doing well with calves appearing in ever increasing numbers. At the
last count, a week into August, we saw 14 calves which, I think, is
relatively high for this time of year.
During that
count fifty seven adults were seen
This is by no
means the an accurate count as flights further than 500 metres from
the coast at the altitude of 350 metres from which we operate do
not keep us within safe gliding distance of the beach.
Mating groups
are plentiful and there are at least three white whales in Walker
Bay at the moment.
All of this
seems to indicate a good future for the whales of Walker Bay which,
in turn, should result in a great future for the town as there will
be many very happy tourists
Someone just
has to find a way to get the whales across to the Western side of
the bay in greater numbers.
A ‘whale
caller’ instead of a ‘whale crier’ could do the trick or possibly a
boatload of krill dumped in the sea near the New Harbour?
We have
spotted large numbers of dolphins along the coast in the first half
of August with two Great White Sharks being seen regularly about
halfway between Hermanus and Gansbaai.
All in all,
there is a great variety of marine life in the bay to entertain our
visitors as well as our mountains, lagoon (if someone does something
about the facilities), great accommodation to suit all tastes and
budgets and wonderful scenery.
Hopefully the
whales will soon spread out and entertain the watchers on top of the
cliffs, but for the moment the large concentration on the Eastern
side of the bay makes viewing from the air a sure and rewarding
exercise
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