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This Month’s Contents:
Blue Ocean
Society News | Notes from the Ledge & Old
Friends
Upcoming Events
| Be Simply Green
| Quote of the Month
Blue Ocean Society News
Summer is almost here and our busy season is upon us. After some
rainy weather in May, our whale watching and research season started
in earnest over Memorial Day weekend. Last year, we spoke to about
20,000 whale watch passengers and learned a lot about our local
marine species, and we’re looking forward to another successful
season! We have already seen one of our new Adopt-a-Marine
Creatures – see the article below about this sighting!
I spent a couple days last week attending the annual Coastal
Cleanup Coordinator’s conference, which was hosted by the Ocean
Conservancy in Portland, Maine. What struck me at the conference is
the huge impact of the International Coastal Cleanup. The cleanup
occurred last year in 70 countries, and annual is the largest
one-day volunteer event of its kind! Coordinators at the conference
hailed from not only New England, but Hawaii, Washington, Michigan,
Mexico, Korea, Puerto Rico, and Dominica, to name just a few. This
is truly an international effort!
I have been inspired by the fact that there is lots of energy and
passion directed at solving the marine debris problem around the
world. Unfortunately, this problem pervades all areas, from remote
coasts such as those in Midway Atoll to heavily populated regions
such as our New England coasts. The comforting thing is that we all
are working towards a solution for the marine debris issue.
Click here for more information on our New Hampshire Coastal Cleanup,
which occurs on September 14-15, or go to
www.coastalcleanup.org to find a
Coastal Cleanup site near you!
Speaking of cleanups, we’d like to extend welcome to two new
Adopt-a-Beach groups – Julie Coffee Burke and her family & friends,
who have adopted Cable Beach in Rye, and the New Outlook Teen Center
from Exeter, who have adopted the middle section of Hampton Beach.
Coming up is
our first-ever Benefit Wine Tasting, “Mysteries of the Sea” at the
Blue Mermaid on June 14. This promises to be a fun, interesting
evening out and more details are below.
We hope to see you soon!
Notes from the Ledge
By Dianna
Schulte, Research Coordinator
We were
excited recently to hear about some sightings from other folks who
got a head start on whale watching in earlier May. Captain Jonathan
Gwalthney from
Deborah
Ann Whale Watch in Perkins Cove, ME has reported seeing at least
10 humpback whales including Ase, Hat Trick, Sword, Solas, and
possibly Canine and Partition.
Beth
Boucher of Granite State Whale Watch was out the weekend before
Memorial Day and spotted two of our favorite finbacks, Fjord and
#9718 (yet to be named). See Beth’s report below.
Old Friends Return
By Beth
Boucher, Associate Scientist & Board Member
I had been anticipating the first whale watch of the 2007
season for quite some time, and it was finally here. It had been a
long winter and I was excited to be back on the Granite State to
search for whales. Despite some adverse weather conditions, the sea
conditions subsided enough for us to try our luck. We had seen
whales in inclement weather before and we were not going to miss our
first opportunity to see some of our old friends!
When I first started whale watching in 1999, I always looked forward
to seeing what was out there, but didn’t know a lot about the
history of the individual whales. Now, I wonder who’s going to
return to Jeffreys Ledge and look forward to knowing that they are
still thriving. We loaded our 30 hearty passengers onto the Granite
State and left Rye Harbor. We were headed to an area a little
inshore of Jeffreys Ledge, called Old Scantum, not knowing what to
expect. Old Scantum is a shallow under water ledge about 14 miles
from Rye. Whale activity had been reported from an offshore fishing
vessel, but there were no guarantees.
Map courtesy USGS
As we headed to Old Scantum, we found lots of bird activity early on
in the trip. The bird watchers would have been envious, because to
our surprise we found about 30 red-necked loons about 2 miles from
Rye Harbor. As the trip continued we saw more and more birds,
including northern gannets, Wilson’s storm-petrels, phalaropes,
fulmars, and a variety of gulls. In the last several years, I
cannot remember a single whale watch season with that amount of bird
activity, never mind one trip! The day was starting out great and I
was hoping for continued success.
Soon after passing the Isles of Shoals, fog started rolling in and
continued to get thicker as we got closer to the Ledge. We were,
however, able to find our first whales of the day, 2 minke whales.
Minke whales are the smallest of all baleen whales, but are still
impressive at 20-30 ft. long. I was so excited to see our first
whales and I instantly felt at home. We decided to move further
offshore in search of other activity. We continued towards
Jeffreys Ledge and as the fog became thicker we tried searching in
many different areas with little success. After a couple additional
hours searching, we needed to head back towards Rye. I was hoping
to see a fin whale, the second largest animal in the world, and one
of my favorite species.
A charter fishing boat called us over the radio and reported a large
whale that appeared to have a scarred dorsal fin near Old Scantum.
Within about 2 miles of the area, the crew and I start looking
intently at the water’s surface, hoping to see the tall exhalation
of a fin whale. After a short period of intense searching, there
it was, the tall column of steam above the surface, an exhalation
from a fin whale! As we approached the whale, it arched its back
going for a deeper dive, disappearing under water. After waiting
several minutes, the whale surfaced again, close by. I placed my
camera out the window and started taking photographs of the chevron
and dorsal fin, two features we can use to tell fin whales apart
from one another.
As I looked through the lens at the dorsal fin, I could identify who
it was. It was a whale named “Fjord,” who has been seen every year
on Jeffreys Ledge since 2000, but was first identified in 1996.
The scientists with the Blue Ocean Society decided to name this
whale last fall, since it is a frequent visitor to Jeffreys Ledge.
Fjord was also added as a new whale that is available for adoption.
For me, naming this whale was a big part to appreciating the
species, since we are starting to better understand fin whales and
their behaviors. Any opportunity to see a whale could potentially
be the last, and I was so glad to know that “Fjord” is back spending
time on Jeffreys Ledge for another feeding season.
In addition to seeing this whale, we saw a whale we haven’t
yet named, but call #9718 since it was the 18th fin whale
identified in 1997. On the Granite State, we called this whale
“Jiggles” last year because it was always feeding at the surface and
we could see its throat pleats jiggling! Being able to experience
whales in their natural habitat is an experience like no other. I
look forward to yet another great season of whales and hope to see
you out there.
Editor’s Note: After a somewhat slow Memorial Day weekend, we were
excited to find several minke and finback whales (including #9718
again!) on Old Scantum, a ledge a few miles inshore of Jeffreys
Ledge, this past weekend! Visit
www.blueoceansociety.org/ww.htm for
recommended whale watch companies and sightings.
 Thanks
to Leo Gagnon, Strategic Real Estate Advisor with
Keller
Williams Realty, for his generous support as our 2007 Annual
Sponsor!
We also
thank
Spectex, LLC for their generous donation to our Marine
Conservation Education Fund. For more information on sponsorship
opportunities,
click here.
Upcoming Events
Friday, June 8: World Oceans Day! Go to the beach, go out on a boat
or otherwise just think about all the oceans are to us – beauty,
food, recreation, and more!
Saturday, June 9:
Beach Cleanup at Jenness Beach
in Celebration of World Oceans Day, 11 AM.
 Wine,
appetizers, desserts, and whales
– what could be
better??
Join us on Thursday, June 14 for our Wine Tasting Benefit:
Mysteries of the Sea, at Blue Mermaid Island Grill in downtown
Portsmouth.
Click here
for more
information and to purchase tickets.
Be Simply Green!
 We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Simply Green, a
local hydroseed, BioFuel and BioDiesel Company. Simply Green has
offered special membership pricing to our readers, including up to a
10 cent (per gallon) savings on BioHeat, discounted service
contracts, a Plant-a-Tree promotion for each new automatic delivery
customer, and a 10% discount on lawn-related services. For more
information, call 603-772-3155 (BioHeat & BioDiesel) or 603-430-9919
(hydroseeding & lawn care), or download the membership offer flyer
here.
Quote of the Month
A society
grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in. - Greek Proverb
Thanks for your interest in marine conservation. If you wish
to support our work, please click here.
Have you become a member yet?
Click here
to buy merchandise such as Adopt-a-Marine Creature
packets, t-shirts and sweatshirts online!
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