Join us for the ultimate whale-watching experience

Sodwana Bay is renowned for the humpback whale migration in winter when these massive creatures gracefully propel their huge bodies through the ebb and flow of the ocean.

On our tours from July to November you might see them making a splash when they breach with their enormous bodies which range in length from 14–17 m and weigh up to 40 metric tons. When beginning a deep dive, the animal hunches its back and rolls steeply forward, bringing its tail out of the water and perpendicular to the ocean surface. It’s a spectacular sight!

For those wishing to take a dip underwater, you might even hear a whale song. Yes, the seas are alive when male whales sing! Their haunting melodies typically last 4 to 33 minutes. It’s said that the humpback whale song is the most complex piece of nonhuman composition on earth. The sounds they make include moans, cries, groans and snores.

INCREASED WHALE POPULATION

Thanks to conservation efforts, the whale population has been steadily increasing over the last half-century. Humans once hunted the species to the brink of extinction and its population fell to around 5 000 by the 1960s. Numbers have recovered partially to around 135 000 worldwide. But sadly, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution continue to affect the species*.

Known as Megaptera nodosa or Megaptera novaeangliae, these creatures use a unique method of feeding called bubble-netting, in which bubbles are exhaled as the whale swims in a spiral below a patch of water dense with food. The curtain of bubbles confines the prey to a small area in the middle of which one or more whales surface. Their nosh revolves around shrimp-like crustaceans called krill, small fish and plankton. They strain the latter out of the water with their baleens.

Don’t delay: this is the year that you simply have to see the greatest show on earth!