EWS Update #8
01/29/97 - 02/05/97

        Looking at the chart which accompanies these updates, it never ceases
to amaze me how important this little piece of watery real estate is to
what remains of the northern right whale population. Along this short
stretch of coast we're seeing almost all the new blood this small tribe
will add to its numbers this year... so far twelve animals. Bathymetry,
temperature, sea conditions-- the combination must be just right.
Whatever it is, it's the gravy for a right whale with a newborn. Since
01/12/97 we've had 44 right whale sightings. Forty of those involved
mother/calf pairs.  
        The relatively limited scope of the habitat, perilous as it may seem,
makes monitoring logistically feasible. This is not to say locating
these whales is easy, even within the confines of a delineated search
area. On 02/04 Bill Brooks (FL-DEP) sent an aircraft identical to ours
to replicate the southern half of our survey (below the Kings Bay
channel). They flew every transect or survey line that we flew and they
flew a line between each of our lines. So they were flying lines 1.5 NM
apart and we were flying lines 3 NM apart. They saw 3 mother/calf pairs
we missed. We proceeded to see 3 mother calf pairs in the northern half
of our area (6 mothers with calves in the EWS area documented in one
day). There could've been more we missed. What we do see can be mighty
useful-- observer Laura Morse relates reports on one incident, 01/31/97: 
"One mother/calf pair...@ 1736 hours. The container ship MarCaribe was
heading inbound to Jax...pair in ships path. Called vessel on ch.16,
they responded, switched to ch. 10. I alerted them to whales position.
They responded. Said  they were going to starboard to give the whales a
wide berth. They did this...very cooperative. Notified Jax ship pilots.
Video taken."    
This is encouraging. It seems obvious that the ship's crew immediately
understood the nature of the radio call. They had probably been educated
by the Jacksonville pilots (St. Johns Bar Pilots) about the presence of
whales reported earlier in the day. This is the essence of the EWS.
        Other good news--  remember the 9 year-old female sighted last winter
in early January entangled in fishing gear she'd picked up off the coast
of New England? We named her Metompkin, after the Coast Guard cutter
that took us out on 01/24/96 to attach a satellite tag to the gear she
was towing (man it was rough as a cobb that day...).You may also know
that we tracked the movement of the tag nearly to the Azores. It quit
transmitting on 07/04/96 after circulating for 3 months in an area of
the Atlantic where right whales had been taken during the old days of
whaling. There is no conclusive evidence, according to the
oceanographers who have reviewed the data, to suggest the tag was or was
not still tethered to the whale. There were some pretty interesting
daily movements by the tag that seem unlikely to have been drift. Others
say it's unlikely such a track is that of a whale. I like to think that
on 07/04 Metompkin's burden fell away. Independence Day. She did make an
appearance in the Bay of Fundy this past August and we were ecstatic to
see that she'd lost the gear and was swimming free. Whatever the case,
this young whale was pregnant during the whole ordeal because she is
here with her first calf. 
         So all is well with us in Fernandina. We hope the same for you.
         Chris Slay, Lisa Conger & the fly crew.