September 10, 2018 — Rising water temperatures have drawn whales closer to shore this year, experts say.
Several humpback whales, and some minke whales, have been seen close to shore, a paddelboarder caught on video just a few feet away from a humpback whale near Salisbury Beach, Mass., a week ago. A humpback was also caught in fishing gear in Rye a couple days before, and footage of close encounters with whales in New England have been posted all over social media and covered in news reports in recent months.
Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium in Boston, said the higher water temperatures, believed to be brought on by climate change, have led to bait fish called menhaden, locally known as “pogies,” appearing closer to shore.
Pogies, he said, eat plankton that have been growing closer to shore because of the higher water temperatures, and several animals including the whales eat the pogies, following them near land. Drone footage of a whale feeding off the coast of Seabrook over Labor Day weekend went viral this week and made news headlines.
LaCasse said whales have been seen close to shore throughout the region this year with sightings in the mouth of the inner harbor in Boston. New England news stations showed footage recently of a whale in Beverly Harbor in Massachusetts lunge feeding, plowing through a school of fish to gulp a couple hundred pogies in its mouth while sending another hundred or so flying through the air, he said.
“They’re going to be close to shore so long as the menhaden are here,” LaCasse said.
He said the menhaden will migrate from the area when the temperature starts to drop.