 |
|
|
|
|
Your involvement and support are vital to the Center's efforts to conserve endangered whales and marine ecosystems.
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Wednesday, April 20, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Humpback Whale Season Underway at PCCS(Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA) - The first humpback whale calf of the 2005 season was seen in Provincetown Harbor on Monday. Its mother, Scylla, is well-known to the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS.) The 24-year old whale has been a regular visitor to Cape Cod waters her entire life.Jooke Robbins, director of PCCS humpback whale research, says the calf is Scylla's ninth, and the first calf identified in New England this spring. North Atlantic humpback whales give birth in the West Indies in winter, but spend the rest of the year on feeding grounds between New England and Norway. "Although mothers start returning with their calves in April, sightings are infrequent until later in spring and early summer," explains Robbins. Humpback whale sightings in Provincetown Harbor are not common, but more likely to occur in spring and fall. Although this sighting was close to home, Robbins and her research team spend their summers offshore, studying humpback whales from Nantucket north to Nova Scotia and east to Georges Bank. PCCS maintains an extensive database of over 1,800 individuals, identified by a unique pattern on the underside of the tail. Time spent at sea provides PCCS with critical information on individuals, such as their sex, age, distribution, reproductive history and family ties. These data are vital in studying the structure, status and trend of this endangered population. Sightings of calves are particularly important because there is no other way to establish the age of a living humpback whale. Scylla was part of scientific history when she produced her first calf in 1987 because that event helped to establish the age of sexual maturity in humpback whales. The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies is a private, non-profit organization founded in 1976 and dedicated to the research and protection of marine mammals and the coastal environment, through public education, scientific research, and conservation. # # # PCCS Contacts:
Theresa M. Barbo
Editors
Educators
Joanne M. Jarzobski # # # | ||
|
|
||
