On 18/09/2019 at 08:30 am, Rainer skippered the Expert Tours Vessel and excited Guests on a Whale and Dolphin spotting trip to Cape Recife, leaving from GQDSAC at 08:30 am.
Awesome Morning, Awesome Guests. Awesome Sightings.
We were blessed today with two sightings of Southern Right Whales, some breaching humpback Whales and hundreds of dolphins.
The first Southern Right was seen off of Hobie Beach – just chilling and calmly surfacing every 5 minutes after a good scratch in the sand below.
The visibility was a good 5 metres all the way to Cape Recife.
In the vicinity of the Pipe Surf Spot we met up with a pod of around 250 Bottlenose Dolphins cruising towards Cape Recife, presumably to meet up with another larger pod on it’s way in towards the coast.
On our way out of the Bay we saw some large gatherings of cormorants doing a spot of fishing and a couple of breaching whales in the distance. We picked up two Humpback Whales on their way South and not willing to hang around and chat.
One of our party was feeling the effects of motion sickness – apparently this brave soul gets sick in planes, trains, swimming, you name it so kudos to our guest from Brazil who toughed out the motion sickness and, I am sure was a good luck sign as, as soon as we turned to head for Cape Recife again we were rewarded with a Humpback Breaching.
Closer in the shelter of the bay and passing the Cape Recife lighthouse another blow from a Southern Right Whale was spotted. This one was chilled and circling around in the vicinity of the lighthouse, posing for photographs and drawing to a close an awesome morning shared with new friends.
The following cetaceans were spotted:
| Time | Latitude | Longitude | Species Code | Adults | Calves | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09h05 | -34.34153 | 23.95365 | SRW | 1 | Swimming | |
| 09h30 | -34.3415283 | 23.9536466 | BOT | 25 | Swimming | |
| 10h00 | -33.993879 | 25.682731 | BOT | 250 | 20 | Swimming |
| 10h40 | -34.021394 | 25.728254 | HUMP | 2 | Breaching | |
| 11h00 | -34.016478 | 25.708943 | SRW | 1 | Swimming |
Legend: SRW – Southern Right Whale | HBW – Humpback Whale | BRY – Brydes Whale | COM – Common Dolphin | BOT – Bottlenose Dolphin | HUMP – Humpback Dolphin | ORCA – Killer Whale/Orca.
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