Humpback whales

© Ocean BlueHumpback whales swim past on their northern migration between May and July, en route from the cold feeding grounds of Antarctica to the warm, tropical waters off Mozambique and East Africa. They don’t usually come close in to shore until they reach the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast in about June or July, when they can be seen to great advantage, conveniently coinciding with the sardine run, but some pop in for a quick visit to Cape Town or the Garden Route. After dropping their calves in the tropics, they slowly start swimming south again, with the leaders reaching KwaZulu-Natal by about September, and the Garden Route by about October. The bulk of the population is off KwaZulu-Natal in October and off the Garden Route in November. Most have moved on by mid December, with a few stragglers bringing up the rear in early January. From about Mossel Bay most of the whales veer offshore and head straight down to Antarctica, but a quite a few take a detour past Cape Town, where they are regularly seen in False Bay.