HERMANUS WHALE FESTIVAL

October 02, 2009 by dyertrust

This year at the Whale Festival we had an Enviro Marquee to celebrate the Marine Big 5Whales, sharks, dolphins, penguins and seals. Our icon was Wally the Whale who was a hit with the children.

Dyer Island Cruisesdonated a large scale whale replica to the Festival which lay proudly outside the marquee.

We hosted a series of talks by researchers on the Saturday and Sunday: Meaghan McCord (Shark Conservancy) on the Breede River Zambezi shark project; Ingrid Peters from the Mammal Research Institute on the feeding habits of southern right whales; Lauren Waller (DICT) on the African Penguin; Mdu Seakamala (MCM) on cape fur seal research; Meredith Thornton (MRI) on the dolphins of the Overberg; Wilfred Chivell (DICT) on whale watching; Alison Towner (Marine Dynamics) on photo identification of the great white shark and then closing off with Kim Maclean (Sharklady) on the work of the Save our Seas Foundation.She shared the documentarySharks in Deep Troublewhich raises the serious issue of shark-finning in South African waters.

Hermanus is known as the best land based whale watching site and the whales did not disappoint with some awesome displays and a couple of white calves.

The Trust had the opportunity to chat with visitors on our various projects and Wilfred (our founder) was interviewed by the national news channel and Kids TV on the big 5.
All in all a great weekend celebrating our marine heritage.
Many thanks to Fasttrax for the pictures!