Whale Guardians - South-Africa

Written by Gregory Vogt - our African Regional Coastal Representative

Southern Africa is a globally significant marine-mammal hotspot. From the cold, nutrient-rich Benguela system along South Africa’s west coast to the warm, current-driven waters of the east coast, our seas support an exceptional diversity of whales and dolphins. This includes large migratory baleen whales, resident coastal species, and increasingly documented superpods — unusually large aggregations of animals feeding or travelling together.

The ecological importance of marine mammals, and their socio-economic value to coastal towns, was brought into sharp focus with the establishment of the MTN Cape Whale Route in 1997. Initiatives such as the Welcoming the Whales Festival, a dedicated Whale Hotline, and accredited whale-guide training programmes helped build public understanding of the significance of marine mammals along our coastline. This awareness gained international recognition when the MTN Cape Whale Route received the prestigious British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award.

Along the west coast, high primary productivity supports dense prey fields that periodically give rise to humpback whale superpods and large mixed dolphin aggregations. These events, once thought rare, are now being observed more frequently, reinforcing the region’s role as both a biological hotspot and a high-interaction zone. On the east coast, humpback whales migrate annually along South Africa, Mozambique and into the Mozambique Channel, with connectivity extending north toward Tanzania, Zanzibar and surrounding island systems.

Together, these coastlines form critical migration corridors and seasonal concentration zones. At certain times of year, whales are predictably clustered close to shore and within established shipping routes — the same waters that underpin whale-watching tourism, fishing activity and commercial maritime traffic.

One of the most clearly established threats to these populations is vessel strike. This risk has been researched and confirmed by international and regional scientific bodies, including the International Whaling Commission, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and South African research institutions. Long-term monitoring has documented ship-strike incidents involving species such as southern right whales and humpback whales, particularly where vessel density overlaps with known whale aggregation areas.

South African authorities, led by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), have taken tangible mitigation steps in specific contexts — including operational rules around ship-to-ship transfers, protocols when marine mammals are present, and spatial protection through Marine Protected Areas. Research programmes, aerial surveys and tagging studies (University of Pretoria MRI) have improved understanding of whale movements, yet mitigation remains uneven and reactive in many high-use areas.

The success and visibility of initiatives like the Whale Route Recommendations demonstrate two things clearly: whales are present, and people care. Whale Guardians builds on this foundation through a globally aligned strategy, working in partnership with leading maritime organisations such as Cobelfret, EBE, CMB.Tech, Transpetrol, Cetus and Anglo-Eastern. By collaborating directly with the shipping fraternity, Whale Guardians is developing  practical, data-driven solutions — powered by what is intended to become one of the largest global marine-mammal citizen science initiatives ever undertaken.