Dr Deborah Robertson-Andersson Receives Prestigious Award
By Lloyd Edwards

1. News

It is with great pleasure that I can post that our own Dr Deborah received a Commendation for the WESSA (Wild Life Society of SA) Annual Conservation Leadership Awards for Individuals. She received this award for her contribution to the Southern African Humpback Migration Route and the “Welcoming the Whales Festivals” and Presentations that are held along its length.

It maybe a good idea to first put that into perspective by looking at some history. Lloyd started the Baywatch Marine Conservation Project in 1992, the main aim being to educate the community and especially the youth about the marine environment and the need for its protection and conservation. Although talks were ongoing since its inception, the first “Welcoming the Whales” Presentation was held at Bayworld during August 2005. Many talks on that theme have been given at community organisations and schools since then.

The first “Welcoming the Whales Festival” was held in June 2018 at Pine Lodge, Port Elizabeth, with presentations by Lloyd and Dr. Lorien Pichegru. The Mayor of PE, Athol Trollip, opened the festival which had plenty of stalls and a Photographic Exhibition of Lloyd’s images depicted the marine mammals of Algoa Bay. Since then, presentations and festivals have been given at over 50 venues, stretching from Gabon in West Africa to Kenya on the East African coast. This is now the longest marine speaking tour on the planet!

Dr. Deborah joined the route in 2023 with a distinguished career as a marine biologist and activist. She has done 69 presentations between Gansbaai and Ponto do Ouro in Mozambique. She has travelled the equivalent of going 55% of the way around the planet, just during her SA travels! Six towns have turned the initial presentations into festivals, which means 300 000 festival goers!

Like us, she does not get paid a salary for doing marine conservation, but instead does her own fundraising along the route. This is the difference . . . it is very easy to do marine conservation work when you are paid a salary to do so. It is far more impressive if you have to raise your own funds!

The route is one of the few examples where repeated talks are leading to sustained conservation action. Each year a different theme is presented, which is based on audience questions from the previous year.

Deborah will be presenting a scientific paper on the Humpback Route at the Int. Conference on Coastal, Marine and Maritime Research to be held in Durban later this month. Only Deborah could have thought to turn this educational route into a scientific paper! Both myself and Karen Keeton from Raggy Charters are co authors!

All smiles as Dr. Deborah Robertson Anderson receives her award.

The Southern Hemisphere Humpback Migration route since 2018. I still can't believe I managed to get to some of those faraway places. That is where the Humpback migration turns around, where the calves are born and nursed, and mating takes place.

Deborah in her usual pose, this was the latest one at the Marine Dynamics in Gansbaai.