Two hours
and eleven minutes into our first day of dedicated surveys, Joy Hampp (Project
Coordinator) happened to be at a public walkover about a mile north of Matanzas
Inlet waiting for Mobile Team 1 to arrive when her eyes spotted a disturbance
in the water just to the north. Yes, it was a right whale mother and calf! Even
better, it turned out to be right whale #2413, who lost her third calf in 2011,
but is now happily back after a short interval with her fourth. We saw #2413 in
2011 with her calf, and then also in 2003 and 2005, so she is a regular to our
study area between St. Augustine Inlet and Ponce Inlet. Now in our thirteenth
season, the opportunity to observe these returning right whales is affording us
insights into their biology.
Mother
and calf moved slowly north along Crescent
Beach, where no public
access exists for miles. Thankfully, they remained within a half mile of the
shoreline, so we employed a combination of inviting ourselves onto some private
property and walking along the beach to take photos and collect data with the
help of Team 1. In the photo, the mother’s head is pointing to the left. The
calf, on the right, is on its right side, with its head on mom’s. The calf’s
eye is visible and indicated with an arrow.
We
followed the pair until 14:00. They hadn’t moved much in the last half hour and
we had the photos and data we needed. What a promising way to start the season!
