AIR CAM SIGHTING
Braving
the chill of Valentine’s Day in the open cockpit of the Air Cam, Joy and Becki
were rewarded with sighting Catalog #2746 and her third calf 1.5 nm east of
Marineland. This is the first time we have documented this
whale in our area. Jim, observing from the Marineland Boardwalk, could barely
make them out and they disappeared quickly.
CALF
COUNT INCREASES
The
number of calves documented in the SE US grew
by two in the last few days and now totals eight. Both new additions are
familiar to us. Catalog #3157 was sighted off Ponte Vedra on 10 February. In
2010, the Air Cam team was the first to sight her with her first calf and we
saw her another four times. Catalog #3546 was seen yesterday off Georgia. We
first made her acquaintance in 2005 when she was a calf with her mother,
Catalog #1246. We also documented her in 2009, 2010, and 2011 in the company of
other whales. Perhaps, both of these mothers will come our way this season!
HUMPBACKS
AROUND
Team 3
was barely on watch yesterday when Julie (Marine Resources Council Right Whale
Hotline) called with a sighting report of three to four whales at the south end
of Beverly Beach. Although the team and Becki did not sight the whales, they
met a couple from the nearby campground who had seen them earlier and had a
photo that clearly showed a dorsal fin, confirming humpbacks.
