Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Right Whales on the Move!

She’s a traveler!
On 12 February, through a gap in the fog at Gamble Rogers State Park, we had our last sighting of right whale #3560 with her first calf, heading south.  How far south?  Well then. . .sighting reports came in as she passed Sebastian Inlet, and. . .Yikes!. . .Miami!!  The last sighting was on 20 February off Key Largo.  We don’t know whether she will continue around the corner into the Gulf of Mexico, or, whether she will make a U-turn and come back north.

Traveler #2
Similarly, our last sighting of #3546, Halo, was on 5 February when we tracked her from North Flagler north to 16th Road.  And then. . .she was off Sapelo Island, Georgia, on the 10th.   Has the northward migration begun, or, will we see her again?

Do not despair!
We have now gone more than two weeks without a right whale sighting in our area.  But wait!  This has happened before.  Sometimes, this has been the end of our sightings for the season.  But at other times, we have had sightings in March.  (Halo was a March whale in 2014.)  We will stick with it.

Predicting the future
Whales and weather!  As Yogi Berra said, “Predictions are hard, especially if it’s about the future.”