photo credit NOAA
I was jumping out of my skin when I read about this!! I'm very jealous...I'd give a lot of things to be there and see this.
Over 100 Northern right whales have been observed off of Cape Cod Bay recently - the largest congregation ever recorded. Considering there's only about 450 of these animals left in the entire world...that's a pretty big chunk of the population.
They're been attracted by the unusually large and long-lasting plankton bloom that's happening this spring. The whales feed mainly on copepods - tiny oil-rich crustaceans suspended in the water column.
Their presence is exciting, but right whales are vulnerable to ship strikes, and having so many concentrated in one area ups the risk. However, Dan McKiernan, deputy director of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Division, happily reports that no whales have thus far been struck.
Full article here (CNN)
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