Southern Right Whales in Hermanus – Pictures of the Whales

Posted in Interactive | Whales, Dolphins & Marine

Whale Season in Hermanus offers amazing opportunities to get pictures of Whales in Walker Bay & Sandown Bay – the following Gallery is credited to Hermanus photographer Wayne Burmeister.

Southern Right Whales:

These beautiful marine mammals that call Hermanus home for a few months are easily distinguished by the white markings that are scattered over their heads, these white markings are called callosities. Southern right whales have no dorsal fins either. They are mostly black in colour and some have white patches on their bellies.

They are truly a spectacular sight to behold and visitors can witness them breaching, spy hopping and sailing (use their tails to catch the wind) in Walker Bay.

Here are some interesting facts about these beautiful animals:

They cannot cross the warm equatorial waters, their thick blubber makes it impossible to regulate their internal body temperature.
Southern Right Whales are some of the slowest swimming whales.
Their gestation period is up to 12 months.