Groups of fishermen and standers-by who were gathered along the Indian River Inlet on Tuesday got an unexpected show from a pair of whales who evidently took a break from their early migration to feed in the inlet.
Coastal Point • SUBMITTED
A whale plays in the inlet on Tuesday.Suzanne Thurman, the executive director of the Lewes-based Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation (MERR) Institute preliminarily identified the animals as North Atlantic right whales — an endangered species — and said that Coast Guard officials stationed at the inlet first spotted the marine mammals about 10:30 p.m. Monday.
They were again spotted about 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday; then again about 10 a.m. that morning. Thurman said that the whales could stay nearby to feed for up to a week.
“We’re just monitoring them right now,” Thurman said Tuesday, adding that she hopes to formally confirm the species of the cetacean visitors. “They don’t seem to be in any distress. This is thrilling, especially if they’re healthy. It’s been a big day.”
Thurman said that no one has recorded a confirmed sighting of the North Atlantic right whale in the immediate area in more than a decade. The whale migrates through Delaware waters but normally does not venture close enough for officials to confirm a sighting, Thurman said. The body of a female North Atlantic right whale was recovered off the coast of Ocean City, Md., in August of 2002, believed to have been killed by a ship strike.
Humpback whales are more commonly seen off the Delaware coast. Seven confirmed whale sightings were recorded in Delaware last year. Seals sightings are also not uncommon.
Because the whales spotted Tuesday traveled side-by-side — and were feeding together — Thurman said they were likely a mother-calf pair. She estimated the mother’s size at or more than 40 feet long and said the calf was nearly that big. North Atlantic right whales can grow to about 55 feet long, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, the leading expert on the large mammal, according to Thurman.
Amy Knowlton, a partner with the consortium and right whale expert at the New England Aquarium in Boston said right whales usually migrate north starting in mid-February. They spend winters calving off the coasts of Florida and Georgia before migrating and settling off the coast of southern New England in the spring and off Canada in the summer months, she said.
However, migration paths of right whales are still mostly mysterious to researchers, who have not — as Thurman indicated — confirmed many sightings in the Mid-Atlantic. Waiting on pictures of the animals spotted here Tuesday, Knowlton said she hoped to confirm the species soon.
Knowlton said that right whales feed mostly on plankton and have been known to travel inland to feed. A few years ago, she said, New Jersey officials spotted one of the marine mammals in a river in Camden, N.J.
“It’s not typical, but it’s not out of the question,” Knowlton said.
The right whale was named due to its thick skin, which made it easy to hunt because the large, slow-swimming mammal will float after being killed and yielded large quantities of oil and baleen — making it the “right whale” to hunt, according to officials and the consortium’s Web site at www.rightwhaleweb.com.
Largely because of heavy hunting in centuries past, only 350 North Atlantic right whales — which are listed as endangered species and protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act — are said to be in existence now, the consortium’s Web site states. Officials believed that the whale’s spotted Tuesday had entered the inlet at least twice to feed on the abundance of fish there.
“I wouldn’t mind if they hung around,” Thurman said, excited by the prospect of further studying the animal in Delaware. “It would be interesting to see them again.”
Thurman asked those who might spot the whale — or any other marine mammal — to call MERR’s 24-hour hotline at (302) 228-5029 and to keep a safe distance — at least 100 yards — from the animal.