WINDHOEK, Dec 11 (The African Portal) – The Benguela Current off the Namibian and South African coasts is a paradise for ocean life, large and small.
Its cold, nutrient-rich waters are so productive that whales of immense sizes find an abundance of food on their migration through our ocean.
In the 16th century, Portuguese seafarers appropriately named the bay on Namibia’s central coast ‘Bay of Whales’.
Commercial whaling began in 1726 and expanded so rapidly that both Southern Right and Humpback whales were pushed to the edge of extinction by the early 1900s.
Southern Right Whales are the larger species, reaching nearly 17 metres and about 90 tonnes.
Humpbacks grow to around 16 metres but weigh only about 40 tonnes. Despite their size, these gentle, curious and social animals can live up to a century.
Yet, humans hunted them for hundreds of years to produce food, oil, gelatine, soap and ingredients for cosmetics and medicines.
Gentle but hunted
More whales were killed around the southern tip of Africa than almost anywhere else in the world except Antarctica.
Between 1908 and 1930, about 73 500 whales were hunted in these waters.
Walvis Bay opened South West Africa’s (now Namibia) first whaling station in 1912, followed soon by another near Lüderitz.
But once factory ships arrived in our waters and whale numbers collapsed, the industry declined rapidly.
After a major fire in 1950, the Walvis Bay station was the last one to shut down.
The need to protect whales was already recognised in the 1930s, and the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was drawn up in 1948, though many whaling nations refused to sign it.
By the 1960s, several whale species were listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
In 1982, the International Whaling Commission finally introduced a global moratorium on commercial whaling, which remains in place today.
The world now recognises that whales are valuable not only for tourism, but also for the greater health of the entire marine ecosystem.
Today, whale conservation is enforced worldwide, with only a few exceptions. Research in Namibia has long been carried out by the Namibian Dolphin Project at Walvis Bay, starting in 2008,
It now operates from South Africa as Sea Search.
A new local organisation, the Marine Eco Foundation, led by Andries Brummer, works with Happy Whale to record whale sightings and identify individual animals through a global database.
Sea Search handles research, while Ocean Conservation Namibia responds to reports of entangled and stranded whales, providing vital on-the-ground assistance.
Healthy signs
Southern Right Whales, once common at Walvis Bay, still haven’t returned despite their overall recovery.
Humpback whales, however, have rebounded quickly since whaling was banned, and recent sightings recorded by Brummer clearly show this along Namibia’s coast.
As Brummer’s whale recordings only began in August last year, comparable data for 2024 and 2025 exist only from August to November.
In that period, 526 sightings were logged last year and 466 this year.
Although more long-term data is needed, these numbers already show how common whales are along our coast.
Brummer also identified 70 individual whales using Happy Whale, a tool that helps scientists track whale movements.
SPECIES SURVIVAL
Whales show how a species can recover when protection comes first. Ongoing monitoring and conservation efforts by the Marine Eco Foundation, together with Sea Search, Happy Whale and Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN), helps ensure whale conservation stays a priority in Namibia.
Their work supports the long-term survival of these magnificent animals, allowing future generations to see them migrate along our coast.
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Credit: The Namibian
