To: Journey North
From: Anne Smrcina
Stellwagen Bank National Marine
Sanctuary
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Greetings --
Can you believe that it's May already? This Journey North season has been
flying by too quickly.
I have a short report for you on whale sightings this week. The right whales seem to have vacated Cape Cod Bay, although one mother-calf pair (satellite-tagged down south) has been recorded about 10 miles east of Stellwagen Bank (the two had previously been recorded off Portsmouth, NH and seem to have circled back). The Navy in Florida have also reported one whale (possibly a right) about 100 miles offshore on April 25th (coordinates 30 degrees 28.9N, 79 degrees 36.3W). Chris Slay from the New England Aquarium's right whale team in Georgia/Florida reports that this data point is important because of the difficulty in discovering whales so far off shore and the lack of present knowledge about right whale territory (this is the second possible right whale sighting by the Navy far offshore -- the other was a few weeks ago, about 50 miles out).
That's all for now. For answers to some of your questions on right whales and humpback whales, see my other posting for today. I'll be sending these answers out over the next two weeks.
Anne Smrcina
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
The Next Right Whale Migration Update Will be Posted on May 8, 1996
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