WHALE PROTECTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 64, 13 September 1939, Page 11

WHALE PROTECTED

A REGULAR VISITOR

Hundreds of motorists from various parts of Cape Town visited Simonstown recently to see Wendy, the 60ft i whale' which has returned to. False Bay, states a South African paper. This whale, which has come up from the southern icefields at regular intervals since 1931 to calve in false Bay, i-eturned after an absence of two years. Wendy is identified by those who have seen her on previous occasions by certain barnacle encrustations on her head, the white "bonnet" on her snout, and the fact that her movements about the harbour are exactly the same as in previous years.

Strict orders that she was to be left undisturbed and that no unauthorised boats were to go out to h er —orders which were designed also to prevent injury to foolhardy sightseers —were issued by Admiralty officials and the Magistrate of Simonstown.

That complete protection for Wendy might make her a sort of Pelorus Jack of Cape waters and lead to False Bay becoming once more a general breeding ground for right whales is the opinion of Dr. E. L. Gill, director of the South African Museum, who has made a personal study of Wendy ever since her first visit.

Up to about 50 years ago, Dr. Gill said, False Bay and Table Bay were regular breeding grounds for right and humpback whales. They used to be hunted by hardy Malays and other hunters in open boats and with handthrown harpoons.