We began
the season with a handful of sightings. Now, for more than a week, the majority
of whale sightings are being reported from the Jacksonville area and north. To see an
interactive map of whale sightings along the entire East Coast, click on this
link; http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/protected_resources/right_whale/.
This site allows you to display sightings based on various time frames.
Whales
and weather are hard to predict. An interesting note is that most of the Southeast US sightings to date are of mother and calf
pairs. Very few of the sightings in the last couple of weeks have been of
singles or pairs and none of large SAGs (Surface Active Groups). Will the
cooler weather bring a change?
As if the
season wasn’t unusual enough, the Provincetown
Center for Coastal Studies,
headquartered in Provincetown on Cape Cod,
posted Saturday, 12 Jan. on its Facebook page a photo of whale #1140, named
Wart, with a calf swimming in Cape
Cod Bay!
The mother and calf pair were never sighted in the SEUS, making them the 14th
mother/calf pair this winter. Coincidentally, whale #1140 is the mother of
whale #3540, Blackheart, who we saw on 19 December with her first calf just
north of SR 206 in Crescent
Beach. Two more
mother/calf pairs were identified recently from aerial photos off the Georgia
coast, so the total for the season is now sixteen calves. Very good news
indeed!
Additionally,
in the last week we have learned that a mother and calf right whale were reported
from Miami and
the Key Biscayne area on 9 January. Recall back in December 2005 when we
sighted a rapidly moving southbound mother/calf pair (#2503) that subsequently
was sighted off Miami and went into the Gulf of Mexico. Anything can happen, and sometimes does! These
events underline that, although we can draw some conclusions from observations
of general whale movement based on sea surface temperatures, individual whales
can show great variability, and we do not know all of the factors and how they
influence the whales.
