NECWA News Blog

Posting by Tammy Silva, NECWA intern. Commercial whaling first began in the 17 th century. The hunt for whales reached its peak in the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, leading to the decimation of whale populations world-wide . New England is richly steeped in the whaling industry and her traditions. The nearby city of New Bedford, MA was once known as the whaling capital of the world; in fact, in the mid 1800s over half of the whaling ships in the world called New Bedford their home port. Provincetown, MA was the second largest whaling port for at one time over 170 whaling ships departed from its well protected harbor. As whale population continued to decline, it was clear that the whaling industry needed some sort of regulation or oversight. In 1946, an international agreement (the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling) established the International Whaling Commission (IWC) . The IWC is an international body whose main purpose is to govern whaling througho

We would like to take a moment to thank our 2010 NECWA Interns for all their help this season. A big thank you to our 2010 interns including: Tammy, Nick, Dominica, Theo, Shaya, Kelly, Michael, Caitlyn, Tiffany, Mary, Patty. Tobias and Bob. Each season, NECWA works with close to a dozen interns who come from all backgrounds and walks of life. Most are college students, but a few are high school students or professionals in the community. Many volunteer onboard the Captain John Whale Watching boats, helping naturalists collect sighting and photographic data on the whales and other unique coastal marine wildlife that are sighted from the boat. Once our interns learn how to collect their sighting and photographic data, the next step is working with Krill to learn how to analyze that data. NECWA interns work one-on-one with Krill learning how to identify individual humpback whales through the photographs that they collect. As interns analyze their data, they learn quickly that this p