Satellite tagging of southern right whales

Since 2021, we have been deploying satellite tags on adult southern right whales to track their migration and feeding behaviour in unprecedented detail. This research is crucial, as the past decade has seen significant changes in southern right whale migration patterns, reproduction, and body condition, likely driven by reduced prey availability in the Southern Ocean due to climate change. Each tag can provide up to a year of continuous data, helping us understand how these whales are responding to a rapidly changing environment.

This research project is run in collaboration with the following people and organisations:
Dr Alex Zerbini and Dr Amy Kennedy from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), University of Washington’s Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES/UW), and the Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research (MarEcoTel).

Funding for this work was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research (MarEcoTel), WWF Protecting Whales & Dolphins Initiative, a private donor (Marcel Weder), TotalEnergies, and the South African Polar Research Infrastructure, to whom we are very grateful.

The map below shows the tracks of adult southern right whales that were tagged in Walker Bay in 2025.

The map below shows the tracks of adult southern right whales that were tagged in Walker Bay in October 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Deployment of CTD tags, which provide us data on water temperature, salinity and depth at which the whale swims, runs in collaboration with Prof Mads-Peter Jorgenson from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Prof Jonas Teilmann from Aarhus University, Dr Alexandre Zerbini from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), University of Washington’s Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES/UW), and the Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research (MarEcoTel) and Wildlife Computers. It is a project funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

The map below shows the tracks of adult southern right whales, which were tagged with CTD tags in Walker Bay in October 2023 and 2024.

Satellite tagging of HUmpback whales

Since 2025, we have been deploying satellite tags on adult humpback whales to track their movement pattern and feeding behaviour along our west coast during the summer months. These tracks help us understand where humpback whales concentrate their foraging effort, how they move through dynamic coastal ecosystems, and which areas are most important for their survival. This information is also used in a wider project related to the effects of climate change on humpback whale populations. The two maps below show the tracks of 6 humpback whales tagged in Yzerfontein in November 2025. This project runs in close collaboration with Dr Alexandre Zerbini and is made possible through the generous support of the South African Polar Research Infrastructure and Whale Expedition, to whom we are very grateful.