EWS Update #9
02/06/97 - 02/12/97

It's been a relatively skimpy week around here, as far as right whale sightings
go.  We haven't exactly been blessed with very good weather either.  So it goes
for this time of the season.  We have confirmed another mother, so we are now 
up to thirteen different moms for the season.

We have a few of our moms positively identified, thanks to Amy Knowlton at 
right whale central in Boston.  I thought I would share a bit of their 
histories:

#1509 - better known as "Rat".  We've seen here quite frequently this season 
with her calf.  She was last seen in the gulf of St. Lawrence and has been a 
regular in Massachusetts Bay.  However, we have never seen her in the Bay of
Fundy.  This is her fourth known calf.

#1707 - better know as "Knotty Head".  She just may be Chris' favorite whale,
being the first right whale that he ever saw and therefore the beginning of his
work with right whales.  You'll have to ask him about the name...  She's a 
regular in the Bay of Fundy, seen every summer there since she was born.  This
is her first calf.

#1622 - This mom was first seen in 1986 in Massachusetts Bay and was seen here 
in the southeast in '89 and '90, but never with a calf.  She frequents 
Massachusetts Bay but has never been seen in the Bay of Fundy.

#1243 - She was born in 1982 and this is her second known calf.  Her first calf
was born here, in 1991.

#1004 - known as "Stumpy", due to her missing right fluke tip.  Many of you may
remember Stumpy from the 1994 calving season.  Her calf that year got caught up
in some very bad luck.  After seeing it numerous times in a very healthy state,
breaching and generally frolicking all around mom, we sighted them one 
afternoon when it was very obvious that the calf had been fatally injured.  
It's flukes were flaccid pieces of flesh, undalating uselessly in the water
as it tried to swim.  They were later observed closely from a tug by Chris and
Marilyn Marx, and appeared to have been cut somehow, very deeply where they
join the tail stock.  We don't expect that the calf survived.  Stumpy is back
in baby making mode, this year's calf being her fourth.

Lisa Conger
Chris Slay