HOW ironic, that we should spot our first whales of the season on World Oceans’ Day. I’m not sure what they were, but we’ll assume they were humpbacks, disporting themselves right opposite The Hide.
What a welcome sight they were too, because there’s always something special about the first whales of the season and although I had been getting whale reports for a few days, these were OUR first whales.
Ironic too that a whale was washed up on the beach at Port Edward on World Oceans’ Day, but despite the efforts of people on the beach it did not survive.* It was apparently either a pygmy sperm whale or a dwarf sperm whale (which is slightly smaller than the pygmy one), two separate species and both found off our shores.**
Interesting too that the island state of New Caledonia in the South Pacific should choose this time to declare the world’s biggest ever marine protected area. It’s Le Parc Naturel de la Mer de Corail, the Natural Park of the Coral Sea, at 1.3 million square kilometres, that’s roughly twice the size of Texas and three times the size of Germany.
Apart from its impressive size, the new park has a remarkable array of marine life, including 48 different species of sharks, 25 mammal species, five sea turtle species (including the endangered green turtle), and 19 nesting bird species (there must be smaller islands out there). There are obviously vast stretches of coral reefs too.
New Caledonia is home to the world’s largest lagoon (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), as well as the world’s second largest (after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef) double barrier reef. The country has some of the richest biodiversity on earth, which is why its government and conservation experts are taking measures to protect their natural treasures.
Well done, New Caledonia, and let’s hope they have made their move in time as illegal fishing, increased shipping traffic from Australia and deep-sea oil mining are already threats to the new park.***
Staying with marine matters, what we think is a juvenile green turtle has been washed up dead on the beach in the Trafalgar Marine Reserve. The green turtle, one of the world’s giant sea turtles, is found around much of Africa, but as far as we are concerned roughly from Cape Town to Mozambique, where there is a colony on Bazaruto Island.
The nearest main rookery or nesting colony is on Europa Island in the Mozambique Channel, where thousands of them may be found.**** I remember diving with a pair of green turtles off the Comores some years ago, a remarkable experience to be sharing the open ocean with two such wonderful creatures. Without any doubt a case of being at the right place at the right time. Cheers!
*www.southcoastherald.co.za
** Whale Watch, Vic Cockcroft & Peter Joyce, Struik, Cape Town, 1998.
***The BBC.
****Snakes & other Reptiles of Southern Africa, Bill Branch, Struik, Cape Town, 1998.
