Southern Right Whales in South Africa: A Recovery That Is Not a Straight Line

Stand on the cliffs at Hermanus in season and you might watch a mother and calf rolling slowly in the bay. Then one day they are gone. Where do they go? Are southern right whales in South Africa recovering? The short answer: yes, but not in a straight line. A 2026 study used satellite tags to follow the migration and feeding areas of South African southern right whales. The authors describe offshore routes and feeding areas that were not well understood before. Tagged whales usually set off heading west-southwest to southeast, then spread out across the South Atlantic.

It is a welcome change of view for a species most people link with mothers and calves close to Hermanus.

The route keeps going beyond the postcard

Southern right whales use South Africa’s coastal waters as a calving and nursery area for part of the year. But their whole year reaches far beyond those bays. The satellite tracks connect the familiar coastal season to offshore movement and to food conditions around ocean fronts, where different water masses meet.

This does not mean every whale takes the same route. The tracks come only from the animals that were tagged. Longer monitoring and more tags are needed to understand how much routes vary across the population.

Are southern right whales really recovering?

A hopeful count can sit next to a worrying trend. A report on the 2026 aerial survey described 222 cow-calf pairs and 25 unaccompanied adults counted along the South African coast. A separate long-term study found poorer body condition and longer gaps between calves among southern right whale mothers over decades.

Both findings matter. One year’s count is not a full measure of population health. The useful headline is not “whales are saved” and not “whales are disappearing”. Numbers, body condition, calving and migration each tell a different part of the story, and scientists need all of them.

How to watch without making their journey harder

South Africa’s whale season brings boats and people to the coast. Keep to the legal distance, watch from land where you can, and follow the local authorities. Do not approach, chase or get into the water with whales. The coast is where the story begins. The tracking data lets us follow it a little farther.

Wildlife encounters are unpredictable. Whale watching should always follow local regulations and experienced professional guidance.

For more, see our southern right whale page in the Ocean Atlas, the South Africa page in the Ocean Atlas, and our list of whale conservation organisations.

Questions people ask

Wildlife encounters are never guaranteed and never forced. Ocean Calling works only with vetted, ethical local operators, and every animal is free to approach, or not, entirely on its own terms.