THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
First, you hear a sudden, loud burst of vapor and water spewing 15 feet into the air from the blowhole. Enough hot air to fill about 300 balloons.
Below the misty puff that hangs in the air, a dark, undefined mass has broken the water's surface.
Keep watching and you'll see the characteristic arched back and small dorsal fin of the humpback whale gracefully roll up out of the water, then sink back down.
Next, if you're lucky, you'll catch a quick glimpse of the powerful tail flukes as they slap at the water's surface.
The rhythmic movement of the humpback whale is a show of nature's wonder that is now being played out daily along our coast.
After a dismal showing last year, no one was sure whether or when one of the world's largest animals would return to Virginia waters. After all, it was only five years ago that the whales were first sighted regularly here.
The guessing is over. The whales are back. And they're making a big splash.
``There's as many here now as we've seen at any one time,'' said W. Mark Swingle, Virginia Marine Science Museum biologist and head of the local whale research project. ``There are whales all over the place. It's really, really intense out there.''
Swingle and his volunteer team of researchers estimate that at least 20 whales are wintering off the coast, feeding off our bounty of bay anchovies.
Beginning Friday, the whales can be viewed up-close from the museum's whale-watching boat excursions.
Already, 5,000 people - some coming from as far away as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Ohio - have made reservations for trips that extend through Feb. 20. (The Southeast Tourist Society has designated Virginia Beach whale-watching as one of the top 20 winter events in the Southeast.)
But landlubbers also can get a good show. The humpbacks are coming so close to shore that they've prompted several outcries from wildlife lovers who fear the whales will strand themselves in the surf.
Not to worry, said Susan Barco, a chief researcher and marine biology graduate student at James Madison University. ``These animals are big, real big, and very strong,'' she said. ``One flick of their tail and they're out of there.''
Off Virginia Beach, the whales feed closer to shore than had been believed possible, sometimes in as little as 10 feet of water, scraping their mouths, bellies and tail flukes on the ocean floor.
Ironically, these leviathans feed on small prey: plankton and small schooling fish, such as bay anchovies and menhaden.
For five years, humpback whales have perplexed scientists by spending their winters off the coast of Virginia Beach, a region where they had never been known to live before.
Last year, however, the whales made only a brief appearance in Virginia on their way to North Carolina. Aerial surveys showed them feeding between Oregon Inlet and Cape Hatteras.
Scientists believe last winter's unseasonably cool temperatures chased to Carolina's warmer water the small schooling fish that whales love so much. ``These whales are going where the food is,'' Swingle said.
Before their first local sighting in 1991, it was believed that humpbacks spent their winters in Caribbean breeding grounds.
But the whales spending time here are young, under 5 years old, and not yet sexually mature. These juveniles are small by whale standards, up to 30 feet. Mature humpbacks are 50 feet and weigh 40 tons.
The reason for their detour here is unknown. But there are some prevailing theories:
These sexually immature whales do not need to travel to breeding grounds where food is scarce when they can mature in the food-rich waters around the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Bay anchovies may have only recently become plentiful here, drawing the juvenile whales from somewhere else.
Or perhaps whale protection laws have done their job and the population is recovering, forcing some to seek additional food sources.
Museum researchers, by studying photographs of the distinctive markings on dorsal fins and tail flukes, have identified 20 individual whales and named them accordingly: No Fin, Two Nicks, Lumpy, Bulls-eye, Tattertail.
Researchers are certain more whales live here than they've been able to capture on film, but they cannot speculate on the numbers.
While small humpbacks are the primary whales off the coast, fin whales - the second largest whales in the world and a more common species than humpbacks - also surface here. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/
Volunteers from the Virginia Marine Science Museum watch for whales
off Rudee Inlet on Wednesday.
A humpback surfaces off the Oceanfront. Scientists estimate that 20
whales are feeding off the coast.
Graphic
WHALE WATCHING
Virginia Marine Science Museum whale-watching trips begin Friday.
Excursions take place Friday through Monday, through Feb. 20.
Departure times vary. The two-hour trips leave from the Virginia
Beach Fishing Center at Rudee Inlet. The cost is $12 for adults and
$10 for children 11 and younger. For information and reservations,
call 437-4949. Private charters are available for school groups and
tours.
TALE OF THE WHALE
Growing up to 50 feet long, humpback whales are mostly black. The
distinctive underside of their tails and long flippers is mottled
black and white.
One of a group of whales that don't have teeth, humpbacks have up
to 800 long, hairy plates of a bony substance called baleen. To
feed, the whales take in great gulps of water along with small
animals. The baleen serves as a strainer, holding back the tiny fish
and crustaceans as water flows from their mouths.
Humpbacks are active, acrobatic whales and can throw themselves
completely out of the water, a behavior called breaching. Another
interesting behavior of humpbacks is their ``singing'' of long,
complex ``songs.''
KEYWORDS: WHALE WATCHING by CNB