THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9504010224
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Spring is here, but some signs of winter - the 20-ton, vapor-spewing, tail-slapping kind - still linger just off the city's shoreline.
Humpback whales have treated us not only to a lively season this year, but to a longer one, as well. These leviathans typically start their journey north by early March with their bellies full of bay anchovies.
But the endangered creatures have not yet moved on. Unlike the houseguest who overstays his welcome, the whales have delighted everyone with their extended visit.
The Virginia Marine Science Museum has taken more than 23,000 people on whale-watching boat excursions since Jan. 13. That's more than the past three years combined.
Whales have been spotted on an unprecedented 90 percent of the trips.
Landlubbers, too, have had a good show, with numerous reports by beachcombers and Oceanfront diners of whales breaching, or leaping out of the water.
``Without question, it's been the best year we've had,'' said W. Mark Swingle, a museum biologist and head of a whale research project. ``And it's been an incredible year for spectacular behaviors. There's been a tremendous amount of breaching, fluking and flipper slapping.''
Only since 1991 have whales wintered in Virginia Beach.
Last year, though, whale watching was abysmal, with sightings on only 10 percent of the boat trips. Colder than normal temperatures last year drove the whales south to North Carolina in search of food.
This year's trips have drawn visitors from around the mid-Atlantic region, as well as Ohio, New York, Chicago, Nebraska and even Washington state, boosting a sluggish winter tourist season.
``It provides us a unique opportunity to focus on something other than the beach, especially this time of year,'' said Ron Kuhlman, the city's director of marketing and sales for convention and visitor development.
``This is one of those things we don't have to invent. You can't improve on Mother Nature.''
This weekend could mark the end of the whale-watching trips for the year because the museum staff has noticed already that the sightings are starting to thin. They will decide Monday how much longer to continue the trips.
With all the sightings this year, Swingle hopes to advance the museum's 4-year-old study of the little-understood animals.
Before the humpbacks' first local sighting in 1991, researchers believed the animals spent their winters in Caribbean breeding grounds.
But the whales spending time here are young, under 5 years, 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 best tool local researchers have is photographic identification of the whales, which have distinctive markings on dorsal fins and tail flukes. Much can be learned by determining whether the same whales return year after year.
This year, 12 individuals have been identified, but it's not clear yet how many are repeat visitors. While they cannot speculate on numbers, researchers know that more whales live here than they've been able to catch on film.
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.
``If the whales keep returning, then we know it's sort of a learned thing,'' Swingle said. ``That they've found a good thing and they keep going with it.''
Perhaps whale protection laws have done their job and the population is recovering, forcing some to seek additional food sources. The whales may even be recolonizing traditional feeding grounds off Virginia Beach they've not used in many decades.
Earlier this century, the whaling industry pushed these giants to the brink of extinction. The humpback was named an endangered species in 1966. An international moratorium was placed on commercial whaling in 1988.
``All of these little pieces will fit together some day,'' Swingle said. by CNB