In honor of our unexpected whale watching in New York harbor, we are taking a brief look at whale watching around the country this summer. It has been an interesting summer indeed. After staying off shore for several years, fin and humpback whales returned to waters off Montauk, at the eastern end of Long Island, to the delight of whale watchers. On the West Coast, large krill patches close to shore off Southern California have attracted blue whales, which has pleased whale watchers while raising concerns that the whales are at risk of being hit by ships in the Santa Barbara ship channel. Whales were no the only large marine life traveling close to shore this season – great white sharks closed several beaches to swimmers on Cape Cod.
Humpback, fin whales return to waters off Montauk
To the delight of local whale watchers, humpback and fin whales have returned to waters off Montauk where they had been largely absent for several years.
Researchers suspect food – including an abundance of herring – may have lured the cetaceans back to local waters. In recent months, dozens of whales, dolphins and porpoises have been spotted just a dozen miles offshore, including some individual humpback whales that normally frequent New England waters.
Fin whales – which grow up to 75 feet long, making them the second-largest whale species – are the most abundant type in Long Island waters. But observers this year have seen a number of smaller minke whales, and dozens of humpbacks on their way up to the Gulf of Maine.
Blue whales put on a show, but at their peril
Taking advantage of unusual ocean conditions, blue whales, along with gregarious humpbacks and even some fin whales have transformed the outer Santa Barbara Channel into a fantasyland for marine-mammal enthusiasts.
Sightings of the gigantic cetaceans are up because the krill patches they feed from, which are generally submerged, are often being found at or near the surface.
But what is a boon to watchers can also be of danger to the whales, particularly the larger blues, who are surfacing close to and even within shipping lanes that pass between the Channel Islands and the mainland.
“I always refer to it as putting your dog’s dish in the middle of Highway 101,” says Mat Curto, captain of the Condor Express, which runs from Santa Barbara’s Sea Landing and is the only vessel making daily excursions to the outer channel. “If the food is in the middle of a major highway, eventually an accident’s going to happen.”
Known collisions involving blue whales — the smaller, quicker humpbacks are less vulnerable — occur at a rate of less than one per year, but scientists believe the number of actual ship strikes to be much higher. And because of present conditions, some fear a repeat of 2007, when krill occurred in the shipping lanes for weeks and at least four blue whales were struck and killed in the channel.
Great White Shark Sightings In Cape Cod; Swimming Banned
The sightings of several great white sharks have prompted a swimming ban for the rest of the Labor Day weekend at some oceanside beaches in Massachusetts.
Officials at North Beach, Lighthouse Beach, South Beach and Hardings Beach in Chatham and Nauset Beach in Orleans put up red “no swimming” signs after a shark expert with the state Division of Marine Fisheries spotted four great whites off Chatham’s coast Saturday.