Swimming with whales in Noordhoek

The Southern Right Whale can grow up to 17 metres long, weigh 80 tonnes and is believed to have the largest testicles of any animal, each weighing up to 500 kg! It got its name during the time when they were hunted...they were referred to as the ‘right’ whales to kill because they would float when dead (which made it easy for the whalers to transport them back).

Why the random facts about these whales?  Last week my sister Stella, my good friend Simon and I swam with three Southern Right Whales down at the beach by my house! I saw them from my bedroom when I woke up and was surprised at how close to the shore they were, just about 100 metres.  After doing some work for a few hours I noticed they were still there, just chilling and playing around. So I convinced Stella and Simon to go down to the beach with me and paddle out to them on our surfboards.

They agreed, but were a bit apprehensive when we got down there, arguing that even though the whales were probably peaceful they could easily unintentionally crush us jumping and rolling around like they were. But I told them about this amazing story about the rescue of a female humpback whale that I had read a few days earlier:

“She had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines and was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat.  She also had hundreds of metres of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.  A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (northern California) and radioed an environmental group for help.  Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her... They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around - she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and that he will never be the same.”

So, I managed to convince them that whales are gentle giants and we paddled out there. We kept our distance at first, staying about 40 metres away. Even from that distance it was obvious how enormous they were - I mean, one of their testicles weighs more than twice as much as the three of us weighed together... But we started drifting closer and closer. Because of the story of the whale that was tangled, I somehow wasn’t worried at all that they would harm us.



They must have noticed us and got curious because they suddenly started swimming around us. Out of nowhere the head of one of them (which was the size of my queen-size bed) popped up in touching distance from us. It was full of barnacles and shot out a fountain of water 5 metres high and the noise it made was so deep and loud. My sister’s face betrayed her pure horror and we started paddling towards the beach. But we quickly realised that they were actually just being curious and friendly. One swam directly at us, dove under the water, and when we opened our eyes underwater we saw it swim half a meter underneath us.  



Another curious Southern Right Whale

We didn’t want to push our luck, so after a few minutes we started paddling back to shore.  We thought we were close enough to shore and took a breather when out of nowhere, one of whales popped up behind me, rolled on his side and extended his 3-meter side flipper right above me. I had my back turned so I didn’t see him coming, I just noticed that I was suddenly in the shade and saw Simon and Stella’s jaws drop. I turned around and when I saw his massive flipper right above me, I thought for a second that he wanted to squat me like a little fly. But he didn’t move, he just stayed there with his flipper towering right above me - it was like he wanted a high-five; or to wave good-bye!

When we got back to the beach a rush of adrenaline washed over us of what had just happened. My sister said that that was both the most terrifying and elating experience of her life. It was unreal how they interacted with us – they really are gentle giants. I cannot believe that commercial whaling is still allowed in parts of the world. (Check out a documentary called “The Cove” – it’s a shocking story of the slaughter of thousands of dolphins that happens in Japan every year.)