BuffettNews.com

Thought some of you may be interested in this story.

http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4374532

PORT ARANSAS - On Tuesday, a pair of North Atlantic right whales were spotted out in Corpus Christi Bay. ( map ) This kind of sighting is as rare as the whales themselves. Right whales don't have dorsal fins, which is a unique characteristic of the species.

At one point Tuesday, the mother and her calf swam down the ship channel to within a mile of downtown Corpus Christi before turning around. They were last spotted just before dark Tuesday night, over by Naval Station Ingleside.

Local marine biologist, Tony Amos, has been sailed every ocean in the world, but never imagined he'd be video taping endangered North Atlantic right whales in Corpus Christi Bay. It's been decades since they've been spotted in the gulf.

"There are two known records...one was a sighting off Florida and the other was a carcass that washed up near Surfside, Freeport area, [in Texas ] about 30 years ago. ( map ), Amos said. He said the hurricanes last season could have steered the whales off course.

"There are big eddies that often spin off the currents and move to the west. We believe that that does sometime transport unusual animals into here. It's not out of the realm of possibility, but I don't know if that's the case.

Now the current is going the other way. Tuesday night's cold front brought with it a strong northwest wind. It's pushed the current back into the Gulf of Mexico through the ship channel. He hopes the whales have gotten in that current and headed back out to safety.

Amos says there are only 300 to 500 endangered right whales left. That makes it even more amazing that a mom and her calf made a stop to the Sparkling City by the Sea.

Online Reporter: Matt Terhune

Oh, way cool!

I'm thinking about taking a trip to Baja to see the gray whales when I'm on vacation in March.

If I want to see whales, I'll go to the mall

very, very cool!

So very cool!! BEG....I'd love to check out the Sea of Cortez sometime when the whales are there! Another place I will go someday is Maui in Feb/March when the Humpbacks are there birthing/breeding......

island_hopper wrote:So very cool!! BEG....I'd love to check out the Sea of Cortez sometime when the whales are there! Another place I will go someday is Maui in Feb/March when the Humpbacks are there birthing/breeding......

Yuppers, Sea of Cortez..that's the place. And ditto on Maui.

They just had a pod of 40 in Maine, so they put a 15 day restriction on commercial fishing...maybe ok for the whales, but not so good for the pocketbook

They come here to calve....right on the North end of the island, where I am....
There are already teams from Woods Hole, and other research facilities...

Some of our houses that are listed for Sale?

The Sellers rent them ,or donate the time there...gratis...for the whale watchers that come here...

Always an exciting time!

The whale in Corpus may have well been one seen near you.

It seems that the whale who got lost in Corpus Christi bay is named Boomerang and was last seen on the Florida coast.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... boomerang/

Another article.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/new ... 652015.htm

Rare sighting

A Northern right whale and her calf are spotted
near Corpus ChristiBy
BILL HANNASTAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
It's a whale of a tale that happens to be true.

Two Northern right whales, one of the rarest of all marine mammals, were seen Monday swimming across Corpus Christi Bay.

The mother and her calf were spotted twice: near the Corpus Christi ship channel a couple of miles from downtown and later near the Ingleside Naval Air Station in another part of the bay.

"It's absolutely unprecedented for them to be in Corpus Christi Bay or even to be in Texas waters," said Anthony Amos, a research fellow with the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

It's only the third time Northern right whales have been seen alive in the Gulf of Mexico since 1963, said Keith Mullen, a research biologist with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service in Pascagoula, Miss. The others were spotted off the Florida Panhandle in 2004 and in Tampa Bay in 1963, Mullin said.

A Northern right whale was found dead in 1972 on Surfside Beach near Freeport.

There are believed to be only about 300 Northern right whales left in the world. Normally, they're found off the coast of the northeast United States, but the females migrate south and give birth off Florida, Georgia and South Carolina in the winter.

They were named "right whales" by whalers because they were easy to hunt and then haul to shore.

"They were hunted close to shore, and when they were killed they floated, so from a whaler's perspective that was very advantageous and economically viable," said Barbara Zoodsma, NOAA fisheries right whale recovery coordinator in Fernandina Beach, Fla.

Since whaling was outlawed, right whales have not recovered. Population models suggest that they could be headed for extinction, Zoodsma said. Their main enemies are strikes by ships and fishing nets, but that doesn't completely explain their minuscule numbers.

Officials say the two whales spotted in Texas waters came from Florida.
The mother gave birth on Dec. 11 off the coast of Daytona Beach, Fla., said Blair Mase, NOAA's southeast coordinator for strandings. Officials with the New England Aquarium keep a photographic database of all Northern right whales. Each right whale has unique growths called callosities that allow them to be tracked.

There are at least 20 species of whales and dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, including at least 1,000 sperm whales, the type found in the classic novel Moby Dick, said Mullin, the NOAA research biologist. Most are found in deep water.

In Port Aransas, Amos spent the day fielding phone calls and waiting in vain for more whale sightings.

"It's pretty rough out there, so there aren't going to be a whole lot of people out there looking for them except the professionals," Amos said. "I'm still a little worried about them, but I'm hoping the lack of sightings is good news."

Speaking of wrong way whales...did you see this story about the Northern Bottlenose Whale that was swimming up the River Thames?! Maybe she wanted to have a spot o tea with the Queen! I'm glad they rescued her, hope she makes it.

http://www.kcra.com/news/6303834/detail.html

Brown Eyed Girl wrote:Speaking of wrong way whales...did you see this story about the Northern Bottlenose Whale that was swimming up the River Thames?! Maybe she wanted to have a spot o tea with the Queen! I'm glad they rescued her, hope she makes it.

http://www.kcra.com/news/6303834/detail.html

Thats crazy aint it...I saw them taking it out today on the news..good luck whale...

So very sad...

I would guess that there was something severely wrong with this whale, since it was so far out of its native territory. Dying whales often end up in places they would never normally be found in. It might be due to the illness interfering with their internal naviagation system, who knows?

All I know is that it makes me very sad.

God bless all those folks who tried to help. I know what they are feeling in their hearts. And her death was not in vain. She allowed many folks to witness something they had never seen before, nor would they normally ever have a chance to see. Who knows what good that might bring about? Perhaps she was not "lost" after all.