Abandoned South African humpback whale returns

(not Migaloo)

July 7, 2007
The Herald
Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa
By Guy Rogers
Environment & Tourism Editor

THE prodigal humpback whale that was “abandoned” at Coega by its mother one and a half years ago seems to have returned – and is still doing strange things.

Eco-tourism operator Lloyd Edwards, of Raggy Charters, said he had been ferrying a boat-load of delegates from the 21st Meeting of the Society of Conservation Biology into the bay when the whale was spotted on Monday.

“I recognised her from the markings on her dorsal fin. There are presently up to 20 humpback whales passing Cape Recife every day on the way to their breeding and calving off East Africa, but this is the only one we have seen within the confines of Algoa Bay,” he said.

He was alerted to the return of the whale a week ago when he spotted it at Coega.

“The fact that she has been here for at least a week shows her behaviour to be different from the rest. Even when the humpbacks do come into the bay with their calves, they normally only rest for a few hours before moving on again.”

While he and the excited delegates were watching, the whale began slapping the water in an unusual way – with the top side of her tail.

Edwards said tail-slapping was common behaviour for the species, thought to be a form of communication or defence, but he had never seen it done this way in 20 years of observing whales.

In October 2005, several witnesses described how a humpback calf – apparently the same one photographed on Monday – arrived at Coega with its mother and then was left behind.

Despite predictions that it would die without its mother‘s milk, it survived, apparently feeding on swarms of shrimp-like krill.

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