Sun July 7 – Whale Watching
Humpback whales, sea turtle, and sunfish!
What a special day we had – our first humpbacks of the season. The day was sunny, breezy, and chilly enough in the shade to make most of us wear sweatshirts, in other words a welcomed relief from the heat and humidity. We heard reports of whales off the Nappeague stretch, as well as further offshore. The NE winds helped us decide to head westward and we found whales off Ditch Plains. We first encountered a really small humpback, perhaps a calf or yearling. It was busy with searching for food on extremely long submersions. Later a larger humpback appeared and we stayed with it long enough to get excellent fluke shots and see some typical humpback behaviors. As we followed this whale to eastward for several miles, while doing so we had a brief encounter with a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle and an ocean sunfish. A nice day in every way!
Totals:
2 humpback whales
1 Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle
1 ocean sunfish
Arthur H. Kopelman, Ph.D.
President, Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island
president@cresli.org
631-319-6003
https://drartiek-cresli.smugmug.com/
