Whale Tale

We spent the week-end at L'Agulhas and Struisbaai and this is the first time we have visited the area.  Known as the most southern tip of Africa, it is a lovely little holiday coastal town and I could happily spend my week-ends there in a holiday home.  We met up with someone we knew from home and she mentioned that there was a beached whale in near-by Waenhuiskraal so we decided to take a drive across and look for it.

The whale was just past the sea cave and we enjoyed the long walk over the beautiful dunes to reach it.

On the way we came across a few people who thought they could drive through the very soft sea sand in their fancy cars.  A bakkie was being pulled out and a Mercedes was waiting for its turn to be pulled out by a nice big Mitsubishi.  

And there it was, a Southern Right Whale resting on its side on the rocks with its one flipper pointing up to the sky.  The birds were busy snacking on the top of it and it seemed as if the carcass had been there for some while already.

The deceased Southern Right Whale

We started walking across the rocks towards the carcass but soon discovered that the white stuff all over the rocks were from the innards that had been washed up at high tide, making the rocks very slippery and quite yucky.  A big lump of white fleshy stuff was lying on the rocks in front of me, quite tummy-churning.

The innards making the rocks and sand very mucky and slippery

Right next to that were lying three pieces of the whales baleen, the plates that filter the micro-organisms out of the water on which they feed.  They were quite interesting to look at.

One piece of the baleen

Front end of the baleen

Looking at the carcass, it was evident that the Great White Sharks in the area had already been snacking on it.  Huge chunks were stripped from the bottom left and bottom right. Obviously once the tide comes in, the carcass is in deeper water and the sharks can reach it.

The birds had already been feasting on the top of the body and there was a Subantartic Skua feeding alongside the juvenile Kelp Gulls... very exciting to see that.

 A rather unsettling object was spotted on the top of the carcass and we were debating what it was until we looked through the binoculars only to find that it was the eye.  Somehow it had bulged out of its cavity and looked rather bizarre.

The eye

By this time a large crowd had gathered and after having a last look, we moved on to the sea cave and let the others have a better look.  It is the first time I have seen a beached whale and apparently this one is a calf as it isn't that big.