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| Photo: Kem McNair/New Smyrna Beach |
Score one for right whale conservation and research! MRC's hotline rang at 10:13am this morning and Sally Thomas was on the other end. Sally had attended a right whale lecture at the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach just 5 days ago, and got to see a right whale today! Within five minutes, Mark Atkinson with Volusia County Beach Safety and Ocean Rescue confirmed the whale off Flagler Ave in New Smyrna.
A fantastic effort was made by many citizens and organizations in the following hours to document, tag, and collect a small skin sample from the whale for genetics research. MRC would like to thank Chad Truxall,
Executive Director of the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach, who later
located and stayed with the whale until the
Marineland Right Whale Project and Florida Fish and Wildlife arrived by air and boat, respectively. Thank you goes out to Kathy Nobles for submitting citizen photos and to Kem McNair,
New Smyrna Beach photographer, artist, surfer, and musician who helped secure
ID-quality land-based photos on a moment's notice. Kudos to Becki Smith, Joy Hampp, and Jim Hain at the Marineland Right Whale Project for their aerial photos and for assisting Florida Fish and Wildlife with their boat-based research efforts.
Today was an example of a fantastic collaboration between citizens, local and state agencies, and non-profit organizations, not only to help protect right whales in the short term, but to learn a little about them in the process, and help secure a future with right whales in it for the long term. Great job, everyone!
We'd like to thank Space Coast River Tours (SCRT) and Port Canaveral for helping to organize our boat trip on January 17th around Canaveral harbor. Twenty-seven people were aboard with Julie Albert to learn about right whales in Florida waters. For the last three years or so, we've done one or two boat trips per season and they're received quite well. This year, the weather was beautiful, SCRT found several dolphins for us, and a turtle greeted us before we even left. If you missed that boat trip, you can catch them again to see our local wildlife! Call Space Coast River Tours at 321-652-1052 to book a boat trip, especially one of their special excursions. For Valentine's Day, they're doing a Chocolates and Champagne tour and they also have Rocket Launch tours. Their tours are Monday – Friday 1pm, Saturday there's a Port Canaveral Lunch tour at 1pm, and Sundays they launch at 3:30pm to see the cruise ships leave. For more information on pricing, directions, and more, please visit www.spacecoastrivertours.com . Thank you Capt. Mark and Carol Noble!