Seeing Humpback Whales from Our Shores

BY: STEVE BIASETTI, GROUP FOR THE EAST END DIRECTOR OF ENVIRONMENT

Humpback whale feeding. NOAA Fisheries photo.

I have a confession to make: I find whales to be terribly distracting. How can I scan the sea for birds or search the beach for seashells (or stare at the horizon contemplating the meaning of life), if a whale is going to be cavorting in plain view near shore?

This was my predicament a few days ago. I had headed to Tiana Beach in Hampton Bays in the late afternoon, hoping to grab some fresh air. Peering over the ocean from the beach pavilion, my binocular view caught sight - about a half-mile out - of a V-shaped spray and then a humpback whale’s dark-rubber back curling across the surface. A few moments later, another exhalation was sprayed a short distance to the west along the whale’s track of travel.

As a lifelong Long Islander with an interest in the natural world, I had spent a half-century - from the mid-1960s to the mid-2010s - scanning our watery surroundings, with hardly a whale’s spout to be seen. In fact, I had only spied whales from local shores twice in those 50 years.

Circumstances have changed quite a bit in recent times. Including Tuesday’s sighting, I have seen humpback whales from shore ten times in the past 3.5 years (since October 2016). On at least two of these occasions, Group for the East End educators were leading local schoolchildren on field trips. Needless to say, on those two days the students’ field experience was greatly enhanced as they watched whales feeding just beyond the breaking waves!

With the humpback’s prey, especially Atlantic menhaden, becoming more plentiful in near-shore waters, we may need to become comfortable with the common sight of whales feeding along Long Island’s south shore. I suppose I can adjust to such distractions.