Mark your calendars
Saturday, 9 March, will be the final survey day for this MRWP season.
Our season wrap-up meeting will be on Saturday, 16 March, from 12:30 to 2:30 PM in the auditorium at the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory in Marineland. Please bring modest portions of finger food and dessert items. We will provide utensils, cups, plates, napkins, and ice; along with, coffee and cold beverages. There will be gear sales, a raffle, and presentations. Come and share stories, photos, good friends, and good food.
Whales over the Horizon
Consistent with our most recent E-News (16 February), the ocean waters in the Marineland Section have been whale-less. This includes some glorious days with flat seas and light winds, and no whales. There is some good news: 19 calves have been born to date, which is the highest number in recent years.
The whales that are still being reported are to the north of us, off Amelia, Cumberland, and St. Simons islands. As of the 27th, Female #1612, Juno, with her 8th calf; and #2791, Fenway, with her 4th calf, were 8 miles off, just east of Brunswick, Georgia. These females are successfully adding to the population. As to the injured calf of Juno, the Georgia Division of Natural Resources Team deployed a boat and conducted an evaluation on the 27th. We await their report.
If you are curious about where right whales are being sighted along the East Coast, have a look at WhaleMap.org. The basic map shows sightings during the past two weeks; the Interactive Map allows you to explore other days or time periods.
Blank Spaces on the Chart
Due to the paucity of sightings this year in our survey area, particularly south of St. Augustine, a chart of sightings for the 2024 season will have many blank spaces. When there are zero sightings, what does that mean ? There are two kinds of zero: sampling zeros, and data zeros. A sampling zero says that there were no whales because no one was looking. A data zero says that people were looking but there were no whales. Yes, many of our days contained data zeros. This is O.K. as it directly contributes to the long-term data set. We will address this point at our meeting on the 16th.
O.K. one more week to go! Will there be one or more sighting surprises in March? Yahoo!
Trish Baker serves up slices of a pecan ring as sustenance to hard-working members of Team 5-S on 24 February 2024. Lillian Crowningshield checks that slices are uniform. (The finger in the frame is Jim’s.)
