Orca Pod Spotted in Waters South of the Vineyard

An aerial survey team of scientists from the New England Aquarium saw a pod of four orcas swimming approximately 40 miles south of Nantucket during an aerial survey on Sunday.

Read More

Whales Wow Beachgoers off South Beach

People on South Beach Sunday were treated to the sight of whales slapping the water close to shore.

Read More

Dead Whale Found in Chilmark

A decomposing minke whale was found washed ashore this week by an Island family that was out for a walk on their Cape Higgon beach.

Read More

Huge White Whale Makes the Woods Hole Passage
Vineyard Gazette

A white whale was seen by Capt. Harry L. Peakes last week while running through Woods Hole. The monster, which was of huge size, showed parts of its body several times, exhibiting a skin that was milk white.

White whales have been seen around the Cape Cod shores on many occasions in the past, but it has been many years since one was seen this close to the Vineyard.

Read More

Blackfish
Vineyard Gazette

A Black-fish of the whale species, was found run ashore in the Menemsha Creek at Chilmark, on Sunday last, at a depth of about three feet of water. He was nineteen feet long and is expected to yield about three barrels of oil.

 

Read More

Two Sea Giants Swim Silently Northward, Their Species Protected and Their Path Free of Bombs
Bruce Brooks

Nuzzling the shoreline with the curiosity and daring that made its ancestors easy prey for whalers, a young right whale is swimming slowly northward along the East Coast toward Martha’s Vineyard. The 20-ton mammal is keeping odd company with a giant sea turtle, and together the silent mammoths have been snooping lazily around Long Island for about two weeks.

Read More

Right Whales Seen in Waters Off Gay Head
Mark Alan Lovewell

One of the rarest creatures on the earth, the endangered right whale, was seen near the Vineyard Tuesday. The sighting off the Gay Head Cliffs is for the record books, a first for the Vineyard in a long time.

The Northeast Right Whale is one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals, with only slightly more than 300 known to be in existence. One was observed from an airplane while it was feeding.

Read More

In Opportunity of a Lifetime, “Conservation” of Right Whales Recorded in Vineyard Waters
Vineyard Gazette

“Cap’n” Seth Wakeman Jr. of Menemsha reports that representatives of the Oceanographic Institution at Woods Hole got “some of the best whale pictures ever taken,” during a recent visit to the Island. In addition to taking still and movie shots, the scientists also had excellent luck in recording the sounds of the whales which have been seen off Menemsha Bight and Gay Head in recent weeks.

Read More

Finback and Humpback Whales
Vineyard Gazette

Several shoals of fin-back and hump-back whales were seen a day or two since from five to fifteen miles south-east of Noman’s Land, Vineyard Sound. They were in sight nearly all day on Thursday, and were in shoals of about fifteen.

Read More

First Calves Signal Hope for Right Whales

Less than a month into the calving season, four baby North Atlantic right whales have already been spotted off the coast of Florida and Georgia, offering a glimmer of hope for the species.

Read More

Pages