Simon's Town Boat Company

13/01/2025

The feeding humpback whales of False Bay – Class of 2024
A whale season we will cherish!

The profile and underside coloration of each humpback whale’s fluke is unique and like human fingerprints can be used to reliably identify individuals.
Photographs uploaded to the “Happywhale” application which uses an AI algorithm to automate the process of identification of humpback whales has catalogued 52 animals that spent a considerable time feeding in False Bay in 2024 - some for up to 4 months!
This was due to the extraordinarily high concentration of anchovy in the bay. Observing & documenting cooperative feeding behaviour in False Bay for the first time was certainly the highlight of our season, especially in the harbour area of Simon’s Town area after sunset.
We’ll keep a beady eye on these animals in future years – some of which have already been re-sighted in the supergroups feeding off Hout Bay and up the West Coast.
Should you want a high resolution .PDF of this chart, please send an email to [email protected]

24/12/2024

Thank you all for your tremendous support in 2024.
May your Xmas be filled with joy and wishing you a happy, healthy and successful 2025.

Operating 2 custom designed vessels, we invite you to share the most beautiful bay in the world with us. Experience Whale & Dolphin watching and Eco Cruises

22/12/2024

One of the highlights on our Cape Point ocean safari is the magnificent Rooikrans cave we visit en-route to the Point. This cave extends almost 60 meters into the sandstone mountainside and one of our party tricks is to enter and explore it by boat.
I think we have now been trumped by the antics of this young man – most likely to impress the girls!
I’ve never seen this before and what immediately came to mind was...... “look mom, no brains” 😳

14/11/2024

Stunning shot of our boat by the master gyro photographer - Jean Tresfon

Simonstown Boat Company, the licensed boat based whale watching operators for False Bay, and more enthusiastic and knowledgeable people you will not find!

01/11/2024

A question we are often asked – How long after departure do you expect to find whales? Our answer is usually, we find them within 30 minutes to an hour. But recently however, I’m not even given the time to finish my safety briefing in the harbour before they pop up. They have been feeding here for months now, along with seals, terns, gulls, penguins and cormorants. There is an enormous amount of anchovy in the bay and they're utilising the harbour walls to trap the bait balls, preventing them from escapie. We have never witnessed this before!

23/10/2024

Always mind-blowing to see Port & Starboard in the bay and even more special when we can share the sighting with our guests. They were hunting in their usual spots and predated on what we believe was a bronze whaler shark. In one of the pics,Starboard can be seen with the prey item in its mouth. Today was just perfect, they were surfacing often and the visibility & sea conditions could not have been better.

18/10/2024

The show just goes on & on!
There must have been at least 20 humpback whales between Simon's Town harbour & Roman Rock lighthouse today.

14/10/2024

Besides dozens of humpback whales on our literally "dodge the whales" trips lately, it's great to have been seeing southern right whales too over the last few days. This lady has a rather unique and distinctive coloration on her back. We've seen her on a number of occasions over the years. Instantly identifyable!

06/10/2024

Humpbacks still feasting in our Bay!

28/09/2024

Last night we witnessed a pod of around 15 humpback whales feeding in Simon’s Town bay. To describe it as phenomenal is truly an understatement!
The feeding was clearly cooperative as they corralled the baitfish close to or alongside the harbour wall and then lunged out of the water in unison. This is similar to how they feed in Norway, only without the bubble netting technique. To capture the full extent of the spectacle was impossible as the lunges were continuously erupting all around our boat and at such speed that we couldn’t anticipate the next.
After dark, when it was no longer possible to take photos, we just observed in awe, which is often the best way to soak in an amazing and novel natural history event such as this.

13/09/2024

This whale season is undoubtably the best since 2018! The bay is simply teaming with both humpback & southern right whales

Operating 2 custom designed vessels, we invite you to share the most beautiful bay in the world with us. Experience Whale & Dolphin watching and Eco Cruises

31/08/2024

Hope this doesn't jinx things, but every trip lately has been spectacular!

30/08/2024

Approaching a breaching southern right whale with Seal Island in the distance was just fantastic, but what we didn’t realize is that she had a calf with her and this was most likely a training demonstration. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the calf breached too. Barely 3 months old, this illustrates how rapid their development is - and it must be because they don’t have many months from birth to prepare for the long summer migration down to the Southern Ocean feeding grounds. This mom can be truly proud of her accomplishment.

30/08/2024

Winter wonderland in False Bay!
Humpback whales with the spectacular snow covered Hottentots Holland mountain range as a back drop

28/08/2024

For many years we’ve had the enormous and rewarding privilege of releasing seabirds that SANCCOB have rescued, rehabilitated and nurtured back to good health. They do all the hard work and we get the easy and fun part of returning them back into their natural environment.
We’ve returned, Cape Gannets (43 in 2023), prions, skuas & different species of shearwaters, petrels and more, but this was our first Albatross (black browed) and not only was it special in itself, but within minutes of its release a pod of common dolphins joined it - perhaps a welcoming party!
SANCCOB is a very special organisation that deserves all of our support.

10/08/2024

Wednesday’s tours were as frustrating as they were rewarding.
On our morning tour we found 4 whales (2 species). They did absolutely nothing other than surface, take a breath and then disappear for 10 minutes, only to re-surface at a distance and disappear again.
On our next trip, barely an hour later and in the same area, we encountered 3 southern right whales (including a cow/calf pair) and almost a dozen humpback whales.
Not only were they all incredibly surface active, but super interactive too - we enjoyed probably the best breaching show of the season so far!
We all understand that every trip cannot be a National Geographic extravaganza and although our guests understand this, we do sometimes wish that they were at least close.
False Bay offers spectacular land & boat based whale watching and there’s a highly enthusiastic group of “super spotters” who often spend the whole day driving between Kalk Bay and Cape Point taking photos or just enjoying the whale spectacle. We work closely together and share sightings in real time which gives opportunities like in the accompanying photos to share land and boat based perspectives.

04/08/2024

This season is off to a flying start!
June is when the whales start showing up, but July is traditionally the month when we get a grasp on whether it’s going to be a bumper season or not. Well this July was just fantastic & bodes well for the rest of the year. Besides excellent whale sightings on all trips, we saw 3 different whale species on a single trip, southern right whale cow/calf pairs on multiple trips, dolphins and even a visit by the celebrity killer whales “Port & Starboard”.