whales

NURSING UNDERWATER

Nursing underwater Whales and dolphins, being marine mammals, exhibit the typical characteristics of mammals: they’re warm-blooded, breathe air, have fur (although only a few hairs or for a limited time period), give birth to live young, and produce milk to feed their offspring. Calves of either whales or dolphins are able to swim shortly after READ MORE

Baleen

Cetaceans are a widely distributed and diverse group of aquatic mammals comprising of whales, dolphins and porpoises. Cetaceans are further grouped into the Odontocetes (toothed whales), and the Mysticetes (baleen whales) based primarily on their feeding habits. Toothed whales have conical teeth and feed largely on fish and marine invertebrates, while baleen whales have bristles READ MORE

Whales of the Plettenberg Bay waters

Over the past few weeks we have seen both our migrant whale species come into Plettenberg Bay, bringing the number of whale species in these waters up to three. It is often easy to focus on our more ‘personable’ migrant whale species that visit our bay, and forget our incredible but shy resident. The Bryde’s READ MORE

Humpback whales migrating.

Over the past few weeks we have started to see humpback whales passing through Plettenberg Bay on their southerly migration to their feeding grounds in the Antarctic Circle. Humpback whales frequently lift their tails above the water before diving which is always a beautiful sight. Did you know that the white pattern on the underside READ MORE

The differences between whales, dolphins and porpoises.

People use the term dolphin, porpoise and whale to describe marine mammals belonging to the order Cetacean (from the Greek work ketos, “large sea creature”), and often use them incorrectly. Cetaceans are divided into two groups; baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti). The main differences between these two groups are that the baleen whales READ MORE

Southern Right whale sightings

We have seen some Southern Right Whales in Plettenberg Bay the last few days. The males have been seen courting the females for a last chance of mating before moving down to the Antarctic to feed. When the males court the females they pet them with their pectoral fins which is easily seen from a READ MORE