Humpback whales have been migrating along South Africa’s shores since June. Because their feeding grounds are too cold to calve, they migrate to southern Africa’s shores every year to calve, and sometimes putting on acrobatic displays delighting avid whale watchers. In case you missed it, Dean Muller managed to capture this wonderful phenomenon near Fish Hoek in the Western Cape.
Humpbacks were brought back from the brink of extinction in the 1960s after being nearly wiped out by the whaling industry and are the first of the great whales to reach their pre-exploitation numbers. This does not mean that their battle is over; climate change, plastic pollution, and abandoned fishing debris all present new threats to these animals.
WATCH: Video: how clever humpback whales feed
These whales have recorded the longest migration of any mammal, with their feeding grounds around 60 degrees South. The journey to Algoa Bay is around 4500 km, and those that travel to Kenya have another 6500 km to go.
Pictures: Dean Muller
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