PROVINCETOWN, Mass., — January 31, 2014 — A new "Carib Tails" international citizen science effort has begun to track humpback whale seasonal migrations between Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and marine sanctuaries in the Caribbean.
Recreational yachters and sailors and others out on the Atlantic Coast waters are asked to photograph the tails of humpbacks they encounter at sea to support research on the estimated 1,000 humpbacks that migrate between Stellwagen Bank and its Caribbean partners. The photographs will be matched with existing entries in the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog and could be added to the collection — particularly if the humpbacks are previously unknown or unphotographed.
Instructions on how to take and contribute photographs are available at caribtails.org.
"The benefit to Cape Codders is that this program advances knowledge and protection of our Cape Cod humpback whales," Jooke Robbins, who directs the humpback whale research program at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, said Thursday by email. "The humpback whales that we see here in the summer spend their winters mating and calving in the Caribbean. The program raises awareness about this well-loved, wide-ranging species and its dependence on habitats in different parts of the North Atlantic. It also gives the yachting community a way to add to our understanding, through simple data that they can collect and share with researchers."
The idea of photographing tails works well for humpback whales because they are identified by the black and white patterns on the underside of their tails, or flukes. The scars and natural pigmentation, ranging from all white to all black, along with the scalloped shaped edges of the tail, give each whale a unique marker.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times