Having a whale of a time with Kristin Bauer van Straten

Having a whale of a time with Kristin Bauer van Straten



It’s not often a celebrity puts their vacation on hold, even for a day, but that’s exactly what Kristin Bauer van Straten and husband Abri van Straten did last Friday. The recently wedded couple is in South Africa to meet Kristin’s new in-laws but, as ambassadors for IFAW’s whale programme, they thought they could put some time towards raising awareness of these gentle behemoths of the deep and the dangers that face them.

Last Friday saw them, Jason Bell-Leask, IFAW’s Southern Africa Director, me and a television crew heading for the high seas in Southern Right Charters beautiful new catamaran Miroschca.

We embarked from Hermanus, a small coastal town famed for offering the world’s best land-based whale watching opportunities. It certainly lived up to its reputation last week and enjoying a coffee overlooking Walker Bay sanctuary we spotted 12 Southern Rights blowing and breaching in the swells below.

But we were set on up-close and personal – although I’m not sure we could have guessed quite how much of both we were going to experience.

We headed off to Hermanus “new” harbour on the outskirts of town (the “old” one is beneath the steep cliffs of the town square, and still features drying racks and paraphernalia of the early whaling industry), Kristin highly keyed-up and excited while Abri for all the world epitomises a laid-back South African which, of course, he is.

Both are absolutely passionate supporters of animal welfare and apart from Kristen’s role as ambassador for IFAW’s whale programme, Abri has recently released his first solo cd Sunlight and Shadows donating a percentage of the proceeds from its sale to IFAW. In addition the song Voices was written to help IFAW protect whales.

The South African whale watching industry is highly regulated to ensure the conservation of the mammals, and Southern Right Charters are one of only two boat-based whale watching set ups that are allowed to operate from Hermanus.

After a quick lesson on whales by our guide Ken, we headed off to the catamaran and were soon pulsing through the giant winter swells that sweep up from the southern oceans at this time of the year. Our course was headed for the mouth of the Bot River lagoon, a popular hang out for Southern Rights.

Half-an-hour later Ken spotted our first whale, then another, and another and another – as the boat slowed to an idle we seemed to be surrounded by whales, some closer and others much further away.

One of the hallmarks of Southern Rights is their intense curiosity and before long, six whales had taken up sentry around us, lob-tailing and spy-hopping to take a closer look at a boat load of excited humans oohing and aahing at them. It was, quite simply, spectacular – and profound.

Why would anyone want to kill a whale, we wondered?

As far as the up close and personal was concerned – well, they were certainly up close, but the personal came with the amorous antics of one male trying his luck with a female who seemed to have a whale’s equivalent of a headache.

But cut to the real business of the day – Kristin and Abri’s television interview with hugely popular All Access programme which airs on the dstv channel MNet. Reaching millions of people weekly, this was an opportunity for them to highlight the threats facing whales from whaling to ship strikes, and pollution.

And while Southern Right’s aren’t on the menu for Japanese whalers, they certainly are ambassadors for the other whales they share the southern oceans with, which are and which are the targets of commercial whaling.

The arrival of the Southern Rights to our shores each winter between June and November to mate, calf and nurse their babies is always greeted with high excitement. They attract thousands of foreign and local tourists who flock to support highly successful and profitable boat and land-based whale watching tourism set ups, providing jobs and income in the smallest communities along our coastline.

Kristin and Abri’s generosity with their time will spread the message to people throughout Africa that watching whales will always make more sense than killing whales – we are grateful to them.