Good news on the whale front

LARGE whales, whose numbers were drastically reduced during the days of commercial whaling, have shown a remarkable resilience to bounce back.

“For too long there has been doom and gloom about the whales, but we have to tell people how populations have recovered and bounced back and how conservation has achieved this,” whaling expert Professor Ken Findlay told delegates at the opening session yesterday of the World Whale Conference and Whale Heritage Sites Summit at the Protea Edward Hotel in Durban.

While marine mammals were faring better than terrestrial mammals such as rhinos, elephants and lions, there were several scenarios that had the experts baffled, said Findlay, who holds the Research Chair of the Oceans Economy at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and who previously directed the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria.

Findlay told delegates how aerial surveys had been conducted of the Southern Right Whales. The number of cow and calf pairs seen last year was exceptionally low.

“We are stumped,” he said. “We are waiting to get the result of this year’s survey in October.”

Humpback whales were doing well and figures were almost back to where they were before whaling.

Since the end of whaling in South Africa in 1975, there had only been 10 sightings of Blue Whales. However, while they were not regularly seen, they were present and increasing.