Month: May 2015

My family recently returned from an amazing beach vacation, and at first, I was hesitant to write about it; the place is so special, I don’t want it overrun by tourists. It was a beach where we went as children with my parents. I wasn’t sure what to expect, whether my memory served me correctly, or if the place was the same. To my surprise and happiness, it was exactly the same, but not in a cheesy, outdated way. Quite the contrary, the island and the natural habitats had been conserved by a local conservancy that prevented the place from being overdeveloped with hotels and high-rises.

The place is Kiawah Island in South Carolina, and it was teeming with life, both on the island and in the ocean. We saw deer around every corner while biking on the 30 miles of walking and biking trails, and alligators sunning themselves around dispersed lagoons. There are 10 miles of packed beaches where we biked and saw jellyfish, conch, horseshoe crabs, snails, crabs, and of course, the highlight for me, dolphins. The dolphins were about 15 feet off the beach. They were tail-slapping and clearly foraging for fish. Dolphins off South Carolina are also known for something called strand-feeding, where they chase fish off a shallow beach or sandbar and then strand themselves on the land to feed on the herded fish before falling back into the water. We didn’t see this behavior, even though we did sail by some of the areas where they are known to do it. Hopefully, we will see it someday as I hope to visit Kiawah annually with my family. This special place reminded me why I wanted to be a marine biologist and encouraged me to start this blog again.

Beluga whales? Off of Rhode Island? Sounds like wishful thinking to us whale lovers, but it is true! I would love to see beluga whales in the wild and despite a vacation to Quebec City last summer, we didn’t make it far enough north to actually see these amazing animals in the St. Lawrence River. Days ago, however, scientists from the Mystic Aquarium along with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management confirmed reports of sightings of three beluga whales off the coast of Rhode Island.

Researchers from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries obtained biopsy samples to assess the health and genetic origins of the whales. The coordinator of the Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Response Network also identified one of the beluga whales as being from the threatened St. Lawrence population through photo-identification. The whale was last seen in 2013. The other whales are believed to be from the same population which has been in decline in the past decade. Once numbering more than 10,000 animals in the late 1800s, the population was estimated in 2012 to be around 900 animals.

It is unknown why the beluga whales are in US waters, though they have been spotted in Rhode Island waters before and have occasionally been spotted off in Maine and Massachusetts. This is the first time, however, that a group of three whales has been spotted in the area. Since the water temperatures in the Northeast are still cool, they are believed to be favorable for the whales and their prey. They may have followed the cold waters of the Labrador Current down the coast.

While the whales are not regular residents in the US Northeast, they are protected like all other marine mammals in the US by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 1972. Boaters are prohibited from interacting with the whales and are required to stay at least 100 feet away from the animals; to not chase them, feed them, or impede their movements; and to slow to no-wake speeds if near the whales. And, if you are lucky enough to see the whales, take a picture (from a distance) and send it to me so I can live vicariously through you.