Come See south africa, Humpbacks, bottlenose, spinner, Indo-Pacific, humpbacked dolphin, Sperm whales, pygmy sperm whales, pilots, false killers, whale, watching, whales, california, dolphins
Staff
Ocean Odyssey is a family run business.

David Huisman (Owner & Skipper) has over seven years experience in the whale watching industry and was trained by Dr Vic Cockcroft, one of South Africa's leading dolphin researchers.  David continued to work for Vic both at the Centre for Dolphin Studies (CDS) and helping to run their commercial whale watching operation, raising funds for CDS research programmes.  While working with the CDS David aided their ongoing research programmes, collecting video footage and attending strandings.  This experience has provided David with a fantastic knowledge of the marine mammal wildlife that inhabits the area.

Since 2003 David has been running commercial whale watching cruises in Knysna looking for whales, dolphins, birds, sharks and seals.  His passion for the animals and desire to provide the best trip possible for his clients resulted in the formation of Ocean Odyssey marine eco-tours.

While working in this area David has sighted over 12 different species of whale and dolphin.

His wife, Amanda Huisman, supports him in his endeavours and is able to use her scientific background to their advantage. Amanda has a Master’s degree in zoology and an Honours degree from Kings College London. After working in the Canary Islands examining the short finned pilot whale and bottlenose dolphin, Amanda studied for her Master’s degree through the CDS and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. For her thesis Amanda examined humpback dolphins, focussing on population size, group dynamics and residency levels of the species.

While working at the CDS, Amanda was exposed to a number of research techniques and was involved with field work on bottlenose dolphins, humpback whales, southern right whales, cape fur seals, killer whales and Bryde’s whales. In addition to this, Amanda attended a number of strandings incorporating 13 different species of marine mammal. Over recent years, Amanda has developed a passion for photography and has had a number of her photographs printed in the national press.
 
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