We have just completed our 23rd research season, and what a season it was! The whales arrived a bit early and numbers remained high through late March. In our shore-based scans, we documented the highest whale counts since 2010, with one record high count of 48 whales in 30 minutes. There were also a lot of mothers and calves.

Our new research vessel allowed us to get on other the water in conditions that would have kept our older boat on the trailer. Thanks again to our generous benefactor. We were able to get good fluke identification photos of over 200 individuals and documented about 30 different mother calf pairs. All very encouraging news. These numbers would be even higher if not for the sustained gusty trade winds in February and March.

Another highlight was our two-week field stint in March with Annie Lewandowski and Katy Payne from Cornell University and Michelle Fournet from the University of New Hampshire. Their work recording humpback whale song was funded by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Alia Payne, Katy's granddaughter, hopes to make a film about Katy featuring some of the fieldwork we did this winter.

We haven't seen a whale in awhile, but we still have a SoundTrap acoustic recorder in the water, which we plan to retrieve at the end of May, as part of the National Marine Sanctuary's underwater sound monitoring program.

Happy spring everyone, stay tuned for more results in our forthcoming newsletter.