![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Right Whales Take Over Cape Cod Bay
This is a right whale, one of the rarest mammals on planet earth:
Photo from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies/NOAA and published in the Boston Globe.
And this is an aerial view of Cape Cod Bay:
What does one have to do with the other?
Well, roughly 70 right whales (who, let's be honest, will never make the cover of Fuzzy Wuzzy Cute Animals Monthly) are hanging out in Cape Cod Bay. What floors me is that this number represents 20% of the approximately 375 right whales left alive.
One thing I did not know: right whales bellying up to the zooplankton bar in Cape Cod Bay is an annual right of spring.
However, the thing that's got everyone really excited is that no one has ever seen this many right whales in one place at the same time. Needless to say, there is much rejoicing going on amongst local scientists and residents. There's even a Boston Globe slide show of the whales frolicking in the blue-green murky water that is Cape Cod Bay.
You gotta admit it's a cool sight, even if I'm not seeing it in person.
Plus, isn't this a lot more interesting than vampire rumors at Boston Latin?
[And by the way, before anyone giggles about dumb kids believing in vampires, it wasn't that the kids actually believed vampires were real, it was that some assholes were using the vampire mythos to bully their schoolmates. For whatever reason, the local media focused on the damn vampire part, instead of the damn bullying part. I don't have issues about this. Not. At. All.]
*breathes deep*
Focus on the cool whales...focus on the cool whales...focus on the cool whales...
Photo from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies/NOAA and published in the Boston Globe.
And this is an aerial view of Cape Cod Bay:
What does one have to do with the other?
Well, roughly 70 right whales (who, let's be honest, will never make the cover of Fuzzy Wuzzy Cute Animals Monthly) are hanging out in Cape Cod Bay. What floors me is that this number represents 20% of the approximately 375 right whales left alive.
One thing I did not know: right whales bellying up to the zooplankton bar in Cape Cod Bay is an annual right of spring.
However, the thing that's got everyone really excited is that no one has ever seen this many right whales in one place at the same time. Needless to say, there is much rejoicing going on amongst local scientists and residents. There's even a Boston Globe slide show of the whales frolicking in the blue-green murky water that is Cape Cod Bay.
You gotta admit it's a cool sight, even if I'm not seeing it in person.
Plus, isn't this a lot more interesting than vampire rumors at Boston Latin?
[And by the way, before anyone giggles about dumb kids believing in vampires, it wasn't that the kids actually believed vampires were real, it was that some assholes were using the vampire mythos to bully their schoolmates. For whatever reason, the local media focused on the damn vampire part, instead of the damn bullying part. I don't have issues about this. Not. At. All.]
*breathes deep*
Focus on the cool whales...focus on the cool whales...focus on the cool whales...
no subject
That's what I thought. I figured it was more a group of 'goth' kids getting ganged up on and bullied. Why the headmistress couldn't just say that, I don't know.
Also...whales are super cool.
no subject
Whales are better. Yes.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
And don't read the vampire story. Just don't. I'm not sure what burns more...the stupid from every single adult involved, or the fact that it completely ignored the bullying aspect.
no subject
Have you been out this year yet?
And - that is about as cool as it can be - whales in Cape Cod Bay. I hope they are enjoying dining there!
no subject
It's still too cold for any of the boathouses, and since I don't own a kayak, I have to rely on them to open before I can pony up for my rental season pass. I was planning to do it in April, but thanks to a lovely car crunching hit-and-run while my car was parked, I have to probably wait until May before I can pony up the cash.
no subject
no subject
Dear God, 375! Is that enough to remain viable?
no subject
The problem is, with populations being so low and the animals being so rare, it's hard to figure out what the population dynamics are doing. We don't know if the populations are increasing, decreasing or holding steady. Unfortunately, the last projection I saw showed them being extinct within 200 years under current conditions.
Current conditions are, also unfortunately, difficult to change. Right whales, along with several other species of whale, are casualties of the fishing industry, getting caught in nets and then drowning. Occasionally, they also get hit by boats. However, NOAA and a few other organizations do have plans in place that are trying to reduce the number of fatalities of large marine mammals as a result of fishing.
no subject
But, God, extinction in 200 years. This makes me sad to read.
no subject
Off topic, but tangential, you know about The Seafood Watch Program right? They've even got a sushi guide now, too.
no subject
no subject
I was joking with my mom last night that the right whales have probably figured out that we don't hunt them any more and that's why there's so many of them hanging around Cape Cod.
There's also Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary, which is where humpback whales, finback whales, minke whales, and pilot whales live during the summer months. Last time I went on a whale watch, one of the calves played tag with the boat I was on (it mostly would jump up out of the water on one side, and then swim under the boat and jump up on the other) for something like an hour.
Needless to say, this area is whale haven and-a-half.
no subject
no subject
Whales are possibly the coolest mammals ever. And the fact that there are only 375 left makes me astonishingly sad.
no subject
no subject
I still remember the 1st mate screaming her off at us, "Right Whale, port bow". Someone said they were doing something, and she yelled back, "I don't care what the hell you're doing, that's a f'ing right whale!".
It is still one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
no subject
Which may actually be true, now that I think of it. Right whale hunting was huge out of New England.
I figure there's probably a zillion people heading for the Provincetown so they can get an eyefull of whale, because...awesome!
no subject
Also, they are protected and not hunted by any whaling industry currently. They just haven't bounced very well, unlike other species (ie. Grey Whales)
no subject
I don't regret going to Latin. I learned a lot, including some kick ass coping skills, but those six years were the most stressful and painful of my entire life. I can understand how some kids could claim they are vampires and others may believe them.
I sat next to a kid in 8th grade homeroom at Latin who claimed to be a Devil worshiper. He said he knew where I lived and he was going to kidnap me from my home to use in his next sacrifice to the Devil. He described in great detail what the sacrifice would entail. I casually mentioned it to my mom, who freaked and called the school. He was suspended for a couple of days and then returned to his spot in homeroom right next to me. By the time he returned, there was rumor floating around the school that he had actually succeeded in sacrificing some girl (me) to the Devil.
A few days later I let slip that I was from Hyde Park. He told me I was lying because Hyde Park is in England so he obviously didn't know where I lived. He was gross and disgusting (he would hock loogies onto the table we shared and wipe his boogers on my text books), and was really insecure. Once he knew he wasn't coming back to school the next year he apologized to me. He said the devil worshiping thing was his defense mechanism at his old school where he was picked on for being the smartest kid in his class and a little weird. Once he entered Latin, he was no longer the smartest kid in the class, but he was still one of the weirdest, so he just went with that. At his old school, his weirdness made him an object of ridicule. At Latin, his weirdness made him scary and gave him some power. It made him somebody to be feared. He was the bully for once and it felt good to him. The bullied became the bully. He apologized for scaring me, said he liked me and asked me out while finishing a sketch for the comic he was writing depicting the 2 of us kissing while bathing in blood. I went to the bathroom for the rest of homeroom, and since it was the last day of school, I never had to see him again because he transferred to a different school the next year.
Hee...I just googled him. He works for a health care quality consulting group. I was kind of hoping to find out he worked for as an illustrator for a comic book company or something. I wanted (or expected) something a little more creative from him.
I was going somewhere with this. I guess I just wanted to say that I understand how "smart kids" can pretend to be vampires and over-worked, over-whelmed, hyper-competitive, perpetually bullied, over-tired kids can be duped into believing in vampires.
no subject