At the end of June each year, The Bluff celebrates its cultural heritage and connection to whales by hosting the ‘Welcoming of the Whales’ festival. The festival focuses on educating locals and tourists alike about cetaceans, marine life, eco-tourism, recycling and general protection of the ocean. The streets are closed for the festival and painted murals and sculptures are showcased, many of which are contributed by local artists.

Alongside the festival, there is an annual ceremony on the beach, which includes a ‘paddle out’ by local surfers while a poem is read. The poem was written by a member of the local community to Welcome the Whales and inform them (and us) that they are safe.

A three-metre-long humpback whale sculpture named ‘Destiny’ was unveiled at one of the festivals. Constructed by local people, including students, the model was decorated with recycled plastic bottle tops, representing the environmental values of the community and highlighting the rising problem of ocean plastic pollution.

Achieving Whale Heritage Site status has been of immeasurable importance to the communities, authorities and organisations that represent this region. The WHS accreditation has helped to change attitudes towards the environment, ocean habitat preservation, and the importance of protecting cetaceans.

WILDTRUST started work at the Durban Port and adjacent beaches in 2017, collecting waste from the beaches and waterways. All of the collected waste is monitored and tracked to help improve understanding of the movement of waste in the port. To date, the team have collected and recycled more than 96,000kgs of waste. Plastic waste collection in the Bluff National Park Golf Course canal has recently helped to prevent plastic pollution from entering the ocean.

Durban Tourism has an invested interest in promoting the destination and ensuring that it’s sustainably managed, while The Bluff stakeholders have a plan in place to support conservation and responsible tourism. Tourism projects are also in place within the community to promote business and employment opportunities.

Additionally, the Youth Employment Services programme has partnered with WILDOCEANS (and their WhaleTime initiative), as well as Whale and Dolphin Tours, to offer workplace opportunities for young, unemployed people in the local community.

Whale watching operators in The Bluff have a unique collaboration with WILDOCEANS, who manage school programmes to educate local children about protecting the planet and cetaceans. WILDOCEANS also run the WhaleTime project, encouraging local ‘citizen scientists’ to capture and upload photos of humpback whales spotted out at sea, which are then identified by experts. This ultimately contributes to a bigger census that will help researchers to understand more about the whale population.

The WhaleTime guides project also collaborates with the Port Natal Maritime Museum, the KZN Coastal College, and boat-based whale watching operators to train new tour guides, giving them practical skills in the workplace and creating employment opportunities.

The WESSA Treasure Beach Science Centre has recently been registered as a Coastal Science Centre, where both sponsored and self-funded programmes are offered to schools and universities who visit the centre and run STEM and STEAM workshops. The Cetacean Project will form part of this, with whale watching scopes, ID guides, and migration monitoring activities offered onsite.

WESSA On WHEELS (WOW) programme is a mobile classroom that travels along the eThekwini Beach Front, meeting school and university groups, and conducting curriculum-based fieldwork and monitoring programmes on the Coastal and Marine Environment. This includes the use of whale watching sites to observe, identify and research cetaceans in the area. The programme is run in collaboration with the eThekwini Education and Awareness unit.