Saturday, January 26, 2008

A Sad Day For The Northern Right Whales

No photos to post today, I do have sightings to catch up on and will possibly do that tomorrow. We lost a calf last night in Ormond By The Sea. It was about 10 feet long and was washed ashore about 7-7:30PM.

When a friend told me this today I felt like someone kicked me in the chest. There was a mother and calf sighted in Ormond By The Sea on Wednesday and they were photographed by the AirCam team. Joy stated that they believed the calf was a male.

I wonder if this was the baby we lost? It is as hard on the mother whale as it is on us humans when a baby is lost. They become very erratic and visibly upset from what I've read.

They are taking the whale to University of Florida where a necropsy will be done to find out what happened to it.

We've recently had a couple dolphin wash up also and not too long ago a real bad red tide. Some of us that don't know what we are talking about are wondering if this all ties in. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

You can read the article that was published in today's Daytona Beach News Journal here.


Remember, if you spot a whale off shore,
Please call The Marineland Right Whale Project at
1-888-97-WHALE
You can find contact info for Joy Hammp or Jim Hain here
Also, if you are in a boat, it is illegal to come within
500 yds of Northern Right Whales.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Lysa, that's just terrible! I hate to hear it, and hope that whatever's causing the deaths is something that can be corrected.

Lysa Napolitano said...

I hope so Sarah, I'm just heartbroken over this.