NECWA News Blog

Salt Presentation at the New Bedford Whaling National Park NECWA staff and interns Krill, Val, Nick and Patty headed down to New Bedford to provide an afternoon of fun and adventure at the Whaling National Park. This is NECWA's second visit to the Whaling National Park and it was fun to reconnect with all the great staff including Rangers and Educational Specialists Emily and Frank. Before the presentation on Salt, the humpback whale, the adults and children who joined us had fun checking out our educational displays, picking up some educational material and trying their hands at some arts & craft activities. Nick was our photographer for the event and he also helped to explain many of the bones and samples that were on our display table. Many were amazed at the neat whale and shark artifacts, including humpback baleen, shark jaws and whale bones. And others were shocked to see just how small whale food really can be! We had preserved samples of the most common type of zooplank...

On April 8th, 2011 Krill, Tammy and Emily were invited up to the MA Division of Marine Fisheries' Annisquam River Marine Fisheries Field Station to meet Scott Elzey and his team (Katie L'Heureux and Kimberly Trull) to discuss possible aging techniques for ocean sunfish, Mola mola . Since 2005, NECWA has conducted an ocean sunfish project through our NEBShark program. Each fall, over 20 ocean sunfish strand (mostly dead) on Cape Cod beaches. We are not sure why these individuals are stranding, but we do know that ocean sunfish are common visitors to our waters in the summer and early fall. They are attracted into our New England waters due to the high abundance of their favorite prey, jellyfish, ctenophores and other gelatinous zooplankton. We spent the morning slicing, examining and working with the vertebrae of ocean sunfish that stranded on Cape Cod beaches this past season. We are hoping to use a banding technique similar to what is used for cartilaginous fish and som...