US Navy
Marine Species Monitoring
Spinnaker sighted off Virginia Beach
Today during an inshore line transect survey on September 25, the field crew from HDR, Inc sighted the first humpback whale of the season off Virginia Beach! It was nice enough to show its tail flukes and we got great identification photos. the photos were passed on to the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center Foundation to add to their catalog and they recognized it immediately. It is a known individual named Spinnaker, first seen as a calf in 2004 in the Gulf of Maine. This individual was originally observed and cataloged by researchers from the Center for Coastal Studies and they regularly see it back in the Gulf of Maine. Photos by Amy Engelhaupt, HDR, Inc.
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