NECWA News Blog

Today, NECWA staff members, Patrick and Krill headed down to the beaches of Manomet to check out a report of a dead, stranded Atlantic white-sided dolphin. Atlantic white-sided dolphins are common to our area in the spring, summer and fall, but tend to head further offshore and south in the wintertime. Dolphins are very social and travel in pods or family units. But often a single animal will wash ashore along our Cape and New England beaches.   This carcass was reported by a local resident of the area, Donald, who had found the carcass the previous day. When Patrick and Krill arrived on site, it was clear that this animal had been dead for a long time. And the numerous cuts and scars on the animal's body were probably the result of the carcasses being moved up and down the rocky beach. Body measurements, photographs and teeth were collected and this information was sent to researchers at the Marine Mammal Rescue Department associated with the New England Aquarium (NEAq) in Boston.

NECWA would like to thank Wayne Petersen for the following trip report and sightng list from our recent Seabird & Whale Tales excursion. Wayne once again is able to capture the essence of the trip making you feel like you are back on the boat once again!   Thanks also to our passengers (birders and whale folk alike) who helped to put together the sighting list.  This trip was a success due to the tremendous group effort of many people including our captain and crew, NECWA staff, interns, guest naturalists and so many others. Thanks to all for making this trip as memorable, fun and as exciting as our previous all day trips.  Also, thanks to marine biologist and CJB naturalist Fred Wasti for creating an online gallery of his images from this trip.  Click HERE to view Fred's amazing photo gallery. And thanks to Patrick Farah for providing a GIS map that shows our path offshore. This map is at the top of this blog report.  Hope to see you this season for our June and September Sea