New 2008 Season Sightings

Normally, we don't have many sightings to report this early in the season so I am thrilled that this spring is not typical! First of all, we have sightings to report from the Turks and Caicos (a breeding area where WDCS Biologist Sue Rocca and WDCS Graduate Intern Vale Vivaldelli spent much of their time this winter researching humpbacks off the coast of these islands). Sue was able to identify Pinball with a new calf! Pinball is the 1989 calf of Liner so Liner is a grandma again this year! While this is the second year that Sue has seen Pinball of the Turks and Caicos islands, Vale had a truly unexpected sighting when she spotted Navaho! Navaho hasn't been spotted in the feeding area since 2005 and this is his first breeding area sighting! We also celebrated Coral's first sighting in the breeding area when researchers reported seeing him in March, off the Dominican Republic! Things are picking up back at home too- scientists from the Provincetown Center for Coastal studies had early sightings of Pepper, still with her 2007 calf. She looks a bit skinny but that's to be expected with her calf still depending on her. This is the second time, we know of, that one of Pepper's calves has stayed with her for more than the first year. Hopefully, the calf will give her some time to eat and gain some of that weight back. They also spotted Abrasion, Liner's calf from 1997. Kathy Rahaman, one of our naturalist's extraordinaire, was out on Saturday, April 7th and spotted Etch-a-sketch (Thalassa's 1989 calf and Salt's grandcalf) and Reflection!! Reflection always makes an early appearance! As the weather improves and we can get on the water here, we'll, hopefully, being seeing lots of "our" whales returning. Stay tuned!