Warming water drawing whales closer to shore

HAMPTON — Rising water temperatures have drawn whales closer to shore this year, experts say.

Several humpback whales, and some minke whales, have been seen close to shore, a paddelboarder caught on video just a few feet away from a humpback whale near Salisbury Beach, Mass., a week ago. A humpback was also caught in fishing gear in Rye a couple days before, and footage of close encounters with whales in New England have been posted all over social media and covered in news reports in recent months.

Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium in Boston, said the higher water temperatures, believed to be brought on by climate change, have led to bait fish called menhaden, locally known as "pogies," appearing closer to shore.

Pogies, he said, eat plankton that have been growing closer to shore because of the higher water temperatures, and several animals including the whales eat the pogies, following them near land. Drone footage of a whale feeding off the coast of Seabrook over Labor Day weekend went viral this week and made news headlines.

LaCasse said whales have been seen close to shore throughout the region this year with sightings in the mouth of the inner harbor in Boston. New England news stations showed footage recently of a whale in Beverly Harbor in Massachusetts lunge feeding, plowing through a school of fish to gulp a couple hundred pogies in its mouth while sending another hundred or so flying through the air, he said.

"They're going to be close to shore so long as the menhaden are here," LaCasse said.

He said the menhaden will migrate from the area when the temperature starts to drop.

Owl, a 32-year-old humpback whale, was entangled in the fishing net deployed off the “purse-seiner” vessel “Western Wave” Aug. 30 off the Isles of Shoals, according to multiple witnesses. The witnesses included 85 people aboard a Granite State Whale Watch tour, led by captain Peter Reynolds.

Reynolds said Owl was one of 12 humpback whales in the area at the time and that the fishing net was intentionally set in spite of them. Reynold said he thought Owl was going to die while trapped and thrashing in the net for about 50 minutes. He said the fishing crew continued to try to haul the net while Owl was caught and “in obvious distress,” while his passengers watched and were “horrified.”

Dianna Schulte, research coordinator and co-founder of the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, said the 32-year-old humpback whale named Owl appeared fine when seen swimming in the area last weekend.

John Ewald, NOAA public affairs director, this week said "As longstanding practice, NOAA Fisheries does not comment on potential or ongoing investigations."

Whale watch businesses have benefited from the buzz generated by the whale sightings. Angel Eaton said her business, Al Gauron's Deep Sea Fishing and Whale Watching in Hampton, has had its best summer this year because of people's excitement to see the whales. She also said her business, which offers free trips to patrons when no whales are seen on a whale watch, has not had to offer any makeup dates this year.

"The close whales help us. We're guaranteed a sure thing," Eaton said.

LaCasse said the Gulf of Maine is one of the most rapidly changing bodies of water in the world, and that water temperatures in the region are higher than they were in 2010. Then, water temperatures did not rise above 70 degrees Fahrenheit as frequently as they have this summer.

Andy Pershing, a marine scientist with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, last month said the average sea surface temperature in the gulf was nearly 5 degrees Fahrenheit above the long-term average during one 10-day stretch in August.

Aug. 8 this year was the second warmest day in recorded history in the gulf, and there were other sustained stretches this summer that were a few degrees higher than the average from 1982 to 2011, Pershing said. He characterized this year as “especially warm” even for a body of water that he and other scientists previously identified as warming faster than 99 percent of the global ocean.

People who see whales up close should keep their distance, said LaCasse, for their safety and that of the whales. Whales can suffer serious wounds from running into boats, while just the flick of a whale's tale could badly injure or kill someone who gets too close, he said. The paddleboarder in Salisbury, he said, could have had an ugly outcome if that whale made physical contact with him.

"That whale weighs tens of thousands of pounds," LaCasse said. "It would be very easy to break that person's femur or knock that person unconscious in the water... if there's just inadvertent contact."

Boaters that strike a whale could easily be ejected from their vehicle, he said. If a boater sees a whale, LaCasse said they should turn off their engines and float while the whale passes by.

"The whale will be very aware of where you are," LaCasse said. "They'll be able to keep doing their thing and you'll have a memory of a lifetime."

For whalewatching guidelines, visit https://bit.ly/2MVq4O5.