Bon Voyage “Onenzi”
By Lloyd Edwards
Tuesday, 12th October 2021Southern Right Calves begin leaving Algoa Bay.
The first Southern Right Whale Calf was born in Algoa Bay on the 20th July 2021; our article of 20th July refers. We came across this cow / calf pair at Hougham Park just north of St Croix Island. This pair, with at least another 10 took up “residence” around the mouth of the Sunday’s River. Historically, the peak of birthing is around late August, so this fellow was a little early.
We ran a competition to name the first calf born and the winner was “Onenzi”. From yesterday’s photos, it looks as if the cow and calf passing the Northern breakwater at the mouth of the Port Elizabeth harbour near the oyster farm could have been “Onenzi”. What a fitting farewell to the people of Port Elizabeth!
Calves are born at 4,5 to 6m in length, which is correlated to the size of the mother. We observed this calf for 85 days and if, as according to cetacean scientists, the calf grows at 2,8cm per day, it would have grown 2,38m. This would make the calf around 8 metres in length, which seems like the case in the photos. This critical length of 8 metres is when the calves leave the nursery area. It is assumed that at this size they are large and fit enough to undertake the migration back to their feeding grounds some 4000km to the south. Here they will consume krill at the age of 6 months and have been observed with their mothers up until a year of age.
We wish “Onenzi” a safe passage and that she will avoid the possibility of a ship strike or killer whale attack. Plastic and other forms of pollution are a constant risk. The original population of these amazing animals was estimated at around 70 000. They were the first whales to be hunted and around 150 000 were taken until 1850. By 1935 when they were finally given protection, it was thought that there were as few as 300 individuals left. The last reliable population estimate for the South African population was 4100 animals in 2006. If the population grows at 7% per annum as assumed, this could have increased somewhat by now. On the other hand, fewer observations have been made in recent years, which could be due to numerous factors.
