With the
warm weather we’ve had recently we started our land surveys Sunday with a hunch
that it would take the cold front later this week to coax the whales to move
south. And, once again, we were surprised.
Julie
Albert of Marine Resources Council called Jim at 9:40 AM on Sunday morning with
a sighting report from South Daytona Beach. Less than an hour later, Julie
received video shot by Brian Brocious of Volusia County Beach Safety. This confirmed a right
whale tail. In addition, it showed
Jim and
Sheila headed south while Julie called the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission aerial survey team. Jim, Sheila and the FWCC aircraft
arrived in the Daytona Shores area about the same time, shortly after noon. The
whale was now about a mile offshore and elusive. Jim and Sheila waited nearly
30 minutes before they had a brief glimpse of a black fluke tip and a V-blow. The
FWCC team had to circle for some time to obtain photos.
Our FWCC
colleagues have provisionally identified the whale as Catalog #4092, a potential
mother with extensive peduncle scars likely caused by entanglement in fishing
gear prior to her arrival in the Southeast. She was seen last week on 29 Dec.
off Sea Island, GA. An interesting note is that this whale was part of a group
of four that we saw off of Marineland last year on 8 January, also our first
sighting of the season. We are now waiting to see if she will have a calf.
The
coordination by several groups documented the first Florida right whale for the
season! Particular credit goes to the Volusia County Beach Patrol for their
video-documented sighting.
