First Aerial Survey to Count Southern Right Whales between Hawston and Witsand
Taking advantage of the weather gap yesterday, the MRI Whale Unit conducted its first aerial survey to count southern right whales between Hawston and Witsand. Although caught by fog at times, we were able to survey the main concentration areas in this coastal stretch and counted 158 females with calves (316 whales) as well as 52 "unaccompanied adults" which include males, non-calving females and likely still pregnant females that still need to give birth. This brings the total to 368 southern right whales in this limited piece of our coast. As per usual, about 90% of the observed females with calves were located in front of the De Hoop Nature Reserve near Koppie Alleen.
These numbers are very similar to those observed in 2017 and 2019 and remain relatively low to what we would expect in normal conditions.
We wish to deeply thank Jean Tresfon and William Stephens of the De Hoop Collection Nature Reserve for making this survey possible! See the images by Jean Tresfon here.
This flight was carried out under the permit of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
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