I am back in Falmouth for our 5th Cape Cod Bay field season – and our last. Not only is this our final CCB field season though, it is our last scheduled field season for the North Atlantic Right Whale Mom/Calf Project. Crazy, right?

I got in last week and we have made it out on the water once so far. The Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) plane was flying so we had aerial coverage of the Bay which is always a huge bonus. They also had a couple of their boats, the R/V’s Shearwater and Ibis, out on the water and the New England Aquarium‘s R/V Callisto was out too. With all that support, we had the Bay well covered. Even better news is that the right whales showed up to the party.

The lack of whales was a big concern for us coming in this year – the previous aerial surveys for the year have seen a handful of whales down near Rhode Island Sound, including #1611 (Clover) & calf, but few to no whales in CCB. So while only 17 right whales were spotted on Monday, that hopefully means the whales are starting to move in to their spring feeding ground. No one spotted Clover and calf, or any mom/calf pair for that matter, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t on their way. Now we can’t wait to get back out and get some tags on!