As we are heading into the season for the annual mass gatherings of humpback whales along our coast two wildlife photographers who happened to be friends took it upon themselves to capture some breathtaking aerial images of a group of humpback whales along the West coast.
In a Facebook post, Marine Conservation Photographer Jean Tresfon gave a detailed description of how Steve Benjamin from Animal Ocean asked him to take a flight to have a look at the whales.
The post reads:
“Taking off into clear blue skies with a light southeaster blowing, we started out by flying to Robben Island to check the northwest side of the island, often a popular spot for the whales to gather. No whales spotted, not even the southern right or two that are usually around! From Three Anchor Bay to Oudeschip there were plenty of small baitballs near the surface, some with only a few birds working and others with hundreds of seals smashing the surface into a froth.”
“We circled overhead for a few minutes then headed south down to Cape Point, amazed by the amount of fresh water in the rivers, lagoons and vleis along the shores of the Cape Point Nature Reserve.
“The wind on the sea surface at Cape Point was blowing around 30kts from the southeast but at 2000ft overhead we had a light headwind indicating around 10kts of the northwest as we turned into False Bay.”
“At Duiker Point, we found a small pod of dusky dolphins then headed to Duiker Island to see if we could spot Buffel, the giant elephant seal that has taken up temporary residence among the cape fur seals. We found him in the water in his favourite channel, not hard to spot his giant glowing white bulk in between the much smaller and darker fur seals. He actually stopped, stuck his head out of the water and looked up at us as we circled overhead.”
“A little way offshore from Kommetjie the southeaster was blowing at gale force and the sea was a windswept froth of white horses which made spotting any whales impossible, but just inside the wind line we saw several telltale blows and there were the humpbacks. A tight group of approximately 25 whales was feeding together with a similar number scouting around nearby.”
“The feeding group had already dispersed and we spotted only a few individuals here and there. We routed back along the coast to the Waterfront, spotting paddlers, haviside dolphins and dragons in Hout Bay as well as a paraglider pilot thermalling around Lion’s Head.”
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Picture/s: Facebook/Jean Tresfon