Killer Whale Research in South Africa
Schedule
Wed, 15 Oct, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC+02:00Location
36 Belper Road, Wynberg, Cape Town, South Africa | Cape Town, WC
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Sea Search are currently leading research on killer whales in southern Africa. Simon will share with us an update on what we currently know about these fascinating top predators. Research includes where and when they're seen, how many killer whales are there? What are they eating and is it changing over time ? Who are Port and Starboard?Simon Elwen PhD
Founding Director and Principal Scientist Research Associate, Dept of BotZoo, University of Stellenbosch
Born and raised in South Africa, I’ve always loved both the sea and animals. After graduating as a biologist, I have had the privilege to travel and work in several other countries including the UK and Gabon. Most of my work since my PhD has been in Namibia running the Namibian Dolphin Project, where I’ve been focussing on Heaviside’s and bottlenose dolphin ecology. More recently, I have moved back to Cape Town to setup Sea Search as a base of operations to make it easier expand my research within South Africa.
Although I’m interested in all aspects of the ocean, I’m particularly interested in the behavioural adaptations that cetaceans make to different environmental conditions. This is an important line of research these days due to the increasing number of changes that have occurred in the marine realm from human impacts.
Summary of my work:
2014-2019: NRF Research Career Advancement Fellow – University of Pretoria. Set up Sea Search with Dr Tess Gridley
2012 – 2014: Research Fellow – University of Pretoria
2010 – 2011: Claude Leon Post-Doctoral Fellow – University of Pretoria
2008 – ongoing: Initiated, set up, sourced funding and lead the Namibian Dolphin Project, a research and conservation project in Namibia
2008 – 2009: University of Pretoria Post-Doctoral fellow
2008: Research Assistant: St Andrews University, Scotland
2007: Research Assistant: University of Aberdeen, Scotland
2002 – 2008 (part time since 2005) University of Pretoria – PhD: “The distribution, movements and abundance of Heaviside’s dolphins in the nearshore waters of the Western Cape, South Africa.” Supervisor: Prof Peter Best
2000 – 2001 University of Pretoria, MSc (with Distinction): “Environmental factors influencing the distribution of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) on the South African coast.” Supervisors: Prof Peter Best & Prof Marthán Bester
1996 – 1999 – University of the Witwatersrand, BSc and BSc Honours.
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Where is it happening?
36 Belper Road, Wynberg, Cape Town, South AfricaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
