Friday, February 29, 2008

Northern Right Whale Sighting Update 2/29/2008


I know, it’s been 15 days since my last update, but I promise you there is good reason for this.

No one has spotted a Northern Right Whale since February 12th.

This isn’t completely unusual to my friends Joy and Jim as they had one year where they went 17 days without a sighting, but as of today they can make that 2 years. As of February 17th, there were still sightings in the Jacksonville and Brunswick area.

According to the Marineland Right Whale Project, due to our warmer then usual weather and water temperatures the whales may have actually began their long trip back north. The good news is so far 16 distinct mother/calf pairs have been “tentatively identified”!

If you are in the area on vacation, or just an avid animal lover/whale watcher like me do not give up hope on seeing whales, just because the northern right whales may have gone home doesn’t mean we don’t have any in the area….

Monday, February 25th a beautiful humpback whale was spotted in Beverly Beach. I did not know we had a humpback whale season here, I thought they were here year round. Apparently when it is time for the northern right whales to go home that signals the time for the humpbacks to arrive. (I have some new research to do!)

The folks at The Marineland Right Whale Project ask that you continue with your phone calls with all whale sightings to them as any sightings assist in their research in both species of whales. One way to tell the difference in the two species, the humpback whale has a small fin on its back and the right whale does not. Also a right whale has a V Spout when it surfaces and a humpback does not, it has a single spout.

I’ve also seen a dwarf sperm whale playing just off shore so you just never know what you may see!


If you spot a whale off the Florida Coastline,

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.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You've been missed!

Lysa Napolitano said...

Awe thanks Boomer! I'm trying to get back to it!

General Viagra said...

I hope that this weather doesn't affect them in their daily basic because a lot of animals are affected in a bad way with this kind of changes.

Viagra said...

I have yet to see a whale in person!