Whale Watching Worldwide

Local Case Study: Hermanus, South Africa
The Western Cape of South Africa is one of the premier spots for land‐based whale watching in the world,
and the town of Hermanus, overlooking Walker Bay, is perhaps South Africa’s best‐known whale watching
location. Like many whale watching regions around the world, in days gone by Hermanus was better known
for whaling than whale watching. These days, nearly 400,000 tourists visit the town annually for land and
boat‐based southern right whale watching. Other cetaceans such as humpback whales, and some dolphin
species, including the endemic Heaviside’s dolphin, are also occasionally seen.
As it did in 1998, the town continues to hold an annual whale festival that attracts up to 100,000 people in a
weekend. In the past, the festival ran for up to two weeks, but now takes places over a four‐day weekend,
usually in late September.
Hermanus is the only known whale watching town in the world to have an official ‘Whale Crier’. Zolile Baleni
is the town’s current Whale Crier – his job is to sound a kelp horn when whales are sighted in Walker Bay.
Different series of horn blows indicate the location and number of whales sighted. Zolile is the third person
to work as a Whale Crier in Hermanus – the first, Pieter Claasens, was appointed in 1992. As well as
sounding the kelp horn when whales are sighted, Zolile the Whale Crier is also a popular and iconic character
during the whale watching season and a great source of information on Hermanus and the whales.
In 2008, the town’s whale watching industry generated approximately $60m in total expenditure. A
significant proportion of this expenditure is indirect expenditure, given the large numbers of land‐based
whale watching tourists visiting Hermanus. Our calculation of this expenditure is based on the estimated
overnight capacity in Hermanus between June and November, combined with an estimated 70,000 tourists
to the whale festival.
With high cliffs overlooking several favourite mating and calving spots for southern right whales along the
South African coastline, in the peak months of September and October, daily sightings are practically
guaranteed. And with value added events such as the whale festival, Hermanus will continue to benefit
from whale watching, having firmly established itself as a premier destination for tourists interested in
seeing these majestic animals in their natural environment.
Further reading:
http://www.whalefestival.co.za
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