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Welcome to NECWA
Greetings!
Welcome to the Spring 2013 edition of the NECWA e-newsletter.
After a winter focused on sea turtle and ocean sunfish strandings, we are pleased to be back on the boats and sighting whales, seals, seabirds and other types of coastal marine wildlife.
We have been seeing quite a few humpback whales on each of our trips offshore. Many of these individuals are old friends that return to our waters to feed each season.
We hope you can join us offshore soon to connect with these incredible animals and the ocean environment in which they live. Walking a beach or taking a boat ride is always good for the soul! And we hope that the articles in this e-newsletter help keep you better connected and informed as to what is happening in our small part of New England. Sincerely,
Carol "Krill" Carson and Kari Heistad
New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance
Quick Links:
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Humpbacks Share Feeding Techniques Study Shows
Researchers studying humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine have discovered a feeding behavior that has been passed on to 40% of the population. This technique called lobtail feeding, was first seen in 1980 and is used to help concentrate schools of sand lance when feeding. Like humpback song, this kick feeding technique is an example of cultural transmission among individuals within a population. To learn more, go to the links below.
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Laws That Protect Right Whales Set to Expire
Spring has arrived and with it comes the annual migration of North Atlantic Right Whales to our waters off Cape Cod. Right whales are a protected species, but their recovery is impacted by collisions with vessels, entanglements in fishing gear and changing environments due to habitat destruction and climate change. Collisions with ships has dropped 90% since Federal speed limits were enacted in areas where the whales migrate, but this regulation is set to expire in December 2013. The Human Society of the USA is working to make sure that it gets renewed. To get involved, go the the HSUS link below.
HSUS RIght Whale Recovery
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Interns for our 2013 Season
We are pleased to have a new group of interns who will be helping us out this summer. We will be working with 13 high school and college interns aboard the whale watching boats offshore and when back on land. Our interns will act as research assistants onboard commercial whale watching boats and assist with educational outreach activities during whale watches and floating classrooms. These young professionals will also help with school and community programs as well as local festivals.
NECWA provides a comprehensive internship program in the hopes of providing opportunity for young professionals interested in the field of marine science.
Here are photos of two of our new interns, Sherel Smalls and Ashleen Chappuis who helped out during one of our recent floating classroom programs aboard Captain John Boats. They did a wonderful job teaching at each station and supporting Captain John staff biologists.
A big thank you to Capt. John Boats for continuing to support NECWA's internship program. Capt. John Boats provides guest tickets for our interns aboard their public whale watching trips.
Interns will also be working onboard Plymouth Whale Watching trips this season. This company runs the Plymouth to Provincetown ferry service in the summer so interns will be assisting on their whale watching trips out of Provincetown.
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Awesome Grant Put to Good Use
The Boston Chapter of the Awesome Foundation, provided NECWA with 1,000 last year to help with our project of a towable sling. We are pleased to say that the sling was put to great use this past year and it helped us to rescue even more Ocean Sunfish. Thank you Awesome Foundation for taking an interest in a very unusual project! |
| 2013 Seabird & Whales Tales Excursions
June Trip: Come join us on June 9th for our all day marine wildlife excursion. We are looking forward to spending a full day on the water which will allow us plenty of time for bird and whale sightings.
On our trips last season, we had great sightings of whales, dolphins, basking sharks, ocean sunfish and seabirds. Guest naturalists for this spring's trip are David Clapp, Jim Sweeney and Dr. John Jahoda.
All proceeds from our SAWT trips go to support NECWA's many projects and activities, so it is a fun time for a great cause!
For pictures from last year's trips and to purchase prints and other gifts, please visit the photo gallery on the NECWA SmugMug account by clicking on this.
Our fall SAWT excursion is scheduled for Sunday, September 8, 2013.
 | | Humpback Whale flippering |
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Ocean Sunfish Strandings - 2012 Overview
2012 turned out to be the busiest stranding season to date for ocean sunfish. NECWA staff and interns responded to 5 live strandings along our Cape Cod shores as well as 39 dead strandings.
 | | 2012 Ocean Sunfish Strandings |
Material collected from necrospies of stranded individuals is stored at Bridgewater State University (BSU) for further analysis or shared with other researchers in New England and overseas. Some of the work done at BSU focuses on techniques that can be used to age ocean sunfish. Ocean sunfish do not have well developed otoliths, inner ear structures that are often used to age bony fish. So we are looking into the use of banding patterns in the centrum of the vertebra for aging purposes.
 | | Banding pattern in sectioned vertebra of Ocean Sunfish |
Lauren Tauer, a recent graduate at BSU, is working with Krill and Dr. John Jahoda (Bridgewater State University) on this project and will be presenting the results of this work on June 19th at the upcoming American Fisheries Society, Summer New England Chapter, summer conference in Rhode Island. This is an exciting opportunity for both NECWA and Lauren. This conference will allow NECWA to get out the word about our research efforts on this quite unusual fish. And this will be the first time that Lauren has provided an oral presentation at a professional conference. No better way to get experience than to do!
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Sea Turtle Necropsies with Mass Audubon at Wellfleet Bay
 | | Bob Prescott leading sea turtle necropsy. |
Once again, staff and interns from NECWA assisted Mass Audubon at Wellfleet Bay with their sea turtle necropsies. Director Bob Prescott led the way as we examined over 150 sea turtle carcasses that had stranded on Cape Cod beaches in the fall and early winter of 2012. This was the busiest stranding season for sea turtles that Mass Audubon has ever recorded.
 | | Michael, staff at WBWS, with dead Kemp's Ridley sea turtle. |
Over 400 sea turtles stranded on Cape Cod beaches and half of them were dead when they washed ashore. Those dead animals were then frozen until January when we work with Mass Audubon to process as many sea turtles as we can at the WHOI Marine Mammal Research Necropsy Facility in Woods Hole. We meet every Saturday starting in mid January and worked into February until all turtles were processed. This was a great learning experience for our staff and volunteers, including many Biology students from Bridgewater State University.
 | | Glen and Krill necropsying a loggerhead at BSU. |
Krill also brought a few sea turtle carcasses back to BSU so students in Dr. Jahoda's marine biology class could help necropsy these individuals. This provided additional experience for students to get hands-on experience with this type of internal examination. All data collected from sea turtle carcasses was provided to specific departments in NOAA in order to better understand sea turtle biology and life history in our Cape Cod waters.
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Shopping to Support NECWA
SmugMug
Looking for gift ideas for family and friends this holiday season? Cruise on over to SmugMug where you can purchase prints, mugs and other gifts while helping NECWA.
Listing SmugMug on your wishlist might also point the way for someone in your life to give you the perfect whale of a present. Click HERE to view the available photographs.
 | | Humpback Whale Breaching |
Marine Wildlife Adoption
Need a beautiful, educational and personalized gift for kids of all ages? Then check out our Marine Wildlife Adoption Program that allows you to adopt one of 10 unique coastal marine animals that are seen off our Cape Cod shores.
To learn more, go to the adoption page on the NECWA website by clicking HERE.
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Live Right Whale Tracking
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Archived 2008 right whale map
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Do you want to know where the Right Whales are in MA at any time? If so, you can visit the Right Whale Listening Network which uses a network of 19 offshore bouys to provide live monitoring of these gentle giants. You can also get a free App for this network called Whale Alert. To learn more and to download this App, go to the NOAA site.
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| Featured Books
Disappearing Giants
The North Atlantic Right Whale
Published in association with the NE Aquarium this short read gives a quick overview of topics such as feeding, history and research.
Ocean: 400 Resuable Stickers by EyeLike
For kids that are into stickers, this sticker book provides 400 picture stickers that can be reused that show kids what you find in the ocean.
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Donations Please - We Need Your Help!
As you make your year-end donations, please consider sending a donation to NECWA. Every donation makes a difference as we work hard to keep our education, research and conservation programs as vital and comprehensive as possible.
NECWA is run completely by volunteers, so all of your donation goes directly to the important work that we do on behalf of coastal marine wildlife.
General Donations are greatly appreciated, or you can donate to a specific need or cause.
DONATIONS NEEDED:
$10: 2 DVD video tapes for video-taping marine wildlife.
$75: Necropsy Kit including tool box, tissue preservative, collection tubes, knives, metric tape measures, labels, etc.
$150: GPS Unit for scientific data collection.
$200: 7 X 50 Marine Binoculars for spotting marine wildlife offshore or stranded on beach.
$300: Wet suit, liner, gloves and booties for rescue work for 1 researcher.
$600: Kayak with paddle for rescue activities.
$800: Dry suit for 1 researcher to help assist with strandings and relocation activities.
To donate, please visit our JustGive site by clicking HERE.
Or mail your tax deductible donation to: NECWA, 11 Clarence Soule Drive, Middleboro, MA 02346.
Thank you for your consideration!
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First Sighting of Salt in 2013
 | | Salt's ventral tail pattern |
NECWA staff member Tammy Silva who is also a naturalist for Captain John Boats had our first sighting of Salt this spring. Tammy saw Salt on May 17th during a charter whale watch. We are so glad that Salt made it back safe and sound from her travels down south and we look forward to many more sightings of this amazing individual. Salt did not have a calf with her this season as we were hoping, but she has brought back 12 calves into this population since her first sighting in 1975. We love her!
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Talks by NECWA this summer
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Humpback whales
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Community Presentations by NECWA - Ocean Sunfish - Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Brewster on July 2, 2013 at 1 pm.
- Salt, the Humpback Whale - Salt Marsh Visitor's Center, Cape Cod National Seashore, Eastham on July 16, 2013 - at 7 pm.
- Monsters of the Sea: Whales, Sharks and Ocean Sunfish - Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, Mass Audubon on July 31, 2013 at 7:30 pm.
- Ocean Sunfish Strandings on our Cape Cod Beaches - Snow Library, Orleans at 2:30 pm.
Hope you can join Krill for these exciting talks!
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New NEBShark Website
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Ocean Sunfish
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NECWA's community-sighting network for ocean sunfish and basking sharks has a new name. It is now called the Basking Shark and Ocean Sunfish Project. And we have a new website coming online next week. Thanks to Rathary for creating this amazing website that will allow people to more easily input their sightings of these 2 large pelagic fish that feed in our New England waters. And we will have lots of great information about both species.
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A Dolphin Asks for Help!
 | | Atlantic white-sided dolphins |
How smart and trusting are dolphins? Just watch this video of a bottlenose dolphin who befriends a diver in Hawaii. This dolphin has a hook and line wrapped around its flipper and in its mouth. The diver works frantically with this animal to release it from this gear. Just watching the trust that this dolphin has in the diver is just incredible. And it has a happy ending!
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 | | Hang 10! |
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 | | Sea Turtle Necropseis |
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