First Right Whale Calves of the Season Spotted in Local Waters

Calf of Perdiddle, tail slapping. CSS image, NOAA permit #19315

PROVINCETOWN – Cape Cod researchers spotted the first North Atlantic right whale calves of the year in Gulf of Maine waters.

On Monday, Northeast Fisheries Science Center researchers identified a mother/calf pair in the Cape Cod Canal.

Just hours later a Center for Coastal Studies aerial survey team spotted a different pair in Cape Cod Bay between Provincetown and Marshfield.

The male calf spotted by the aerial team is the offspring of a whale named Pediddle. The mother is at least 39 years old and was first identified in 1978, and first spotted in Cape Cod Bay in 1979.

The new calf is the eight documents offspring of Pediddle.

The survey team spotted 71 different right whales in the bay Monday, which is the most seen this season. The total is just under 15 percent of the entire species estimated population, which is around 500.

“This extraordinary influx of whales marks the start of peak season here in the northeast,” said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, director of the Right Whale Ecology Program at the Center for Coastal Studies. “Over the last decade one third to one half of the entire right whale population has visited the bay to feed each year.”

Center researchers have already spotted over 100 individual right whales this year.

“We expect to see many more during the next few weeks,” Mayo said.

Right whales are the rarest of all large whale species and among the rarest of all marine mammal species.

About CapeCod.com NewsCenter

The award-winning CapeCod.com NewsCenter provides the Cape Cod community with a constant, credible source for local news. We are on the job seven days a week.



CapeCod.com
737 West Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Contact Us | Advertise Terms of Use 
Employment and EEO | Privacy