16 February is World Whale Day

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - World Whale Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in February annually.

This year it is commemorated this coming Sunday, 16 February.

The purpose of World Whale Day is to raise awareness about these beautiful creatures, as well as the challenges and threats facing them.

Whales are mammals and are broadly divided into two categories: toothed whales and baleen whales.

Toothed whales, such as the narwhale and beaked whales, have teeth and feed on fish and squid. Baleen whales, however, have bristle-like plates of keratin (the same protein that our hair and nails is made from) in their mouths, which they use to sieve out tiny marine animals such as krill from the water which they then feed on.

The whales that we often see along the coast of Mossel Bay are a species of baleen whale known as the southern right.

The southern right whale’s habitat is the open oceans of the southern hemisphere. They spend their time in the icy waters near Antarctica during the summer months and then head for the more temperate waters of the South African, Australian and South American coasts in winter, where they breed and calve in the calm, coastal waters.

Female whales produce one calf every three to four years. The calves stay with their mother for about a year after which they are weaned and are strong enough to survive in the open ocean on their own. While mature rights are not threatened by predators, calves are targets of great whites and orcas.

Once sought after by commercial whalers, the southern right got its name for being the “right” whale to hunt.

Several characteristics, such as being slow swimmers which cannot dive as deep or for as long as other whale species and their tendency to float when dead, made these whales easy pickings for whaling ships.

Luckily, commercial whaling has now been outlawed and the southern right’s numbers are increasing, so it is no longer on the endangered species list.

However, rights still face threats from commercial fishing vessels, climate change and the oil and gas industry.

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