Whale watching in South Africa

Dyer Island Cruises (FTTSA accredited) is actively involved in coastal conservation, e.g. creating artificial penguin homes for nesting purposes on Dyer Island, collects & cares for injured birds and seals found along the coast and a percentage of their income is donated to Western Cape Nature Conservation Board. They are also committed to community upliftment, e.g. training local guides, distributing handcrafted cards to clients after boat trips and making an annual donation to the Silwejare Old Age Home.

Ocean Blue Adventures (FTTSA accredited) offer marine eco-tours based on non-consumptive and sustainable utilisation of marine resources. They were awarded the WWF Green Trust award in 2001 for their work on eco-tourism and sustainable tourism in Plettenberg Bay. The company have also been awarded an educational licence to approach to within 50 m of whales in the bay and record information on sightings for scientific purposes. Ocean Blue Adventures donate a proportion of their income to the ORCA (Ocean Research & Conservation Africa) Foundation. ORCA's objective is to develop a practical and useable model for sustainable tourism development in Plettenberg Bay, which combines the needs of conservation, local business and international tourism.

Calabash Tours (FTTSA accredited) is a commercial venture with a social agenda. Calabash adheres to the principles of fair trade and feels it is imperative that the communities you visit benefit directly. They employ mainly previously disadvantaged individuals and provide training and skills development for their employees. The Calabash Trust develop and assist township projects, resulting in direct benefits for the communities visited, including support for local artists and service providers. Recently, Calabash Tours won the Imvelo Responsible Tourism Awards 2003 in the category for the Best Social Involvement Programme.

For all of our tours we provide customers with an itinerary specific responsible travel guide aprox 4 weeks before they depart. This includes a generic travellers code of conduct which emphasises basic responsible travel advice – e.g. reduction of waste and consumption of natural resources, purchase local produce where possible etc. Our holidays are specifically designed to bring guests into direct contact with locals from a range of different tribes and cultures across Africa. We also therefore provide destination specific guidance including advice on local customs and some key phrases in certain languages (e.g. Swahili). We also offer guidance on how to barter responsibly for local curios and what curios should be avoided (e.g. certain wildlife artefacts such as coral, turtle shells etc.). As all of our guides and groundhandlers are local we also give guidance on what a fair and reasonable level of tipping would be at the end of the holiday.

We support the work of Tourism Concern both in distributing their advice to customers and as an active participant in the Ethical Tour Operators Group. Our managing director sits on this group and is a regular attendee of meetings contributing to work towards developing industry wide fair trade standards. We also distribute materials to customers and make periodic donations for the following charities: Tree Aid; International Fund for Wildlife and Survival International Trust. In Southern Africa we support the Southern Africa Sustainable Seafood Initiative and forward their guidance to all customers on which seafood is sustainable when offered a choice at restaurants.