THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702100056
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 107 lines
Circling around the tip of Cape Hatteras in a small airplane, Mark Swingle keeps his eyes on the boiling water just offshore where sea birds are diving.
Swingle, the director of the Virginia Marine Science Museum's Stranding Center, has a feeling this might be the spot.
And then, as though on cue, the jade sea explodes. An exclamation mark of vapor and a freight train of gray break the surface.
``Humpback!'' Swingle calls out over the plane's intercom.
The plane circles and sure enough, on its next appearance, the young animal's great, wing-like pectoral fins positively identify it as a humpback whale, gorging itself on bait fish just off the coast.
``As soon as we began seeing those birds, I had a feeling we would see something,'' the marine biologist says.
The aerial survey Friday in a single-engine plane was part of an ongoing study of whale and dolphin activity along the Atlantic coast.
According to data collected by the Stranding Center, the coastline from Cape Story to Cape Hatteras has been experiencing the largest number of wintertime whale visits on the East Coast in recent years.
The sightings began in the late '80s and have steadily increased.
They correspond to increasing reports from fishing fleets and Oceanfront visitors that whales have become a regular part of the winter scene.
With the help of aerial surveys, confirmed sightings from fishing boats, whale-watching trips and reports from other states, the museum has assembled the most extensive information on winter whale distribution in the mid-Atlantic, Swingle says.
``We have made a start, and I think it's a very exciting start,'' he says.
The whales, primarily juvenile humpbacks and fin whales, appear to be charting a separate course from their parents and older siblings.
The mature animals leave Arctic feeding grounds and head directly for the Caribbean, where they mate and bear young.
But the sexually immature whales are more interested in feeding and head for the Atlantic coast, following the coastline down and hunting for schools of fish.
Swingle says the wintertime abundance of whales seems to correspond to the prevalence of bay anchovies, a whale delicacy.
``Whales, dolphins, birds and fish are all looking for the same thing: food,'' he says. ``They may be different species, but it's all kind of interconnected.''
The other factor is weather, milder winters drawing whales farther north, colder winters pushing them farther south.
The largest number of sightings has occurred off Cape Story, near the mouth of the food-rich Chesapeake Bay.
The aerial surveys have been confined to a narrow strip along the coast, not a very good indicator of what's happening farther offshore, but Swingle says the museum hopes to expand future surveys to several miles offshore.
Farther up the coast, near Nags Head, thousands of cormorants are skimming the water. Large white gannets, flying along in weaving conga lines, break formation and begin dive-bombing the surface. And in their midst: another explosion of mist as a whale exhales.
But by the time the plane can bank for a closer look, the creature has disappeared.
Meanwhile, close to shore, another sight grabs Swingle's attention. Large groups of dolphins are swimming parallel to the coastline at several locations. They're as far north as Duck, along the upper Outer Banks.
Dolphins, a warm-weather phenomenon along the Virginia coast, migrate south for the winter, usually well below Oregon Inlet.
``That's very unexpected to see them this far north this time of year,'' Swingle says.
They're either coastal dolphins making a fishing foray up the coast or larger offshore dolphins that have moved landward from just off the Gulf Stream, he says.
Swingle has better luck in the air than whale watchers do by boat Friday afternoon.
Whale-watching trips have recently had several sightings, mostly off Cape Henry.
But a report from a fishing boat that a whale has been seen off Sandbridge lures the Bobbi Lee, one of the charter boats the museum uses for its trips, in that direction.
And, as the boat with its 65 passengers turns south out of Rudee Inlet, the search sounds promising.
``Hey, skipper, we've got a whale between me and you,'' the fishing boat captain calls on the radio.
But after speeding to the scene, whatever it was is gone. Maybe it was just an explosion of water from one of the birds diving for fish.
Beth Marshall, the museum naturalist on the trip, keeps the watchers watching for whale breath.
``A large whale can actually blow up 400 regular-size balloons with one exhale,'' she says.
But in this part of the ocean on Friday, there is no such demonstration. MEMO: The Virginia Marine Science Museum whale-watching trips run
through March 2 at least three times a day on weekends and holidays:
10:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the trips take place at 3:30 p.m. For
information, call 437-BOAT. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
STEVE EARLEY
The Virginian-Pilot
BILL TIERNAN
The Virginian-Pilot
Lloyd Ritchie of Springfield surveys the waters off Virginia Beach
with a video camera Friday during a whale watch sponsored by the
Virginia Marine Science Museum. No whales were spotted during the
two-hour boat ride that day.