NECWA News Blog

We want to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving Holiday season. Thank you for all your help and support over the year as we work hard to protect and conserve marine wildlife in the New England area. May you and your loved ones have a very safe and happy holiday season. From all of us at NECWA.

Examining the dead torpedo ray. This past weekend, NECWA staff were part of the Marine Wildlife Stranding Field School offered by Mass Audubon at Wellfleet Bay. Here staff and participants focused their weekend on the marine animals that strand along the shore of Cape Cod. Looking for live and stranded animals on the beach.= Activities for the weekend included walking the beaches to look for cold-stunned sea turtles and ocean sunfish. And participants were involved with necropsies (animal autopsies) of quite a few different species including a loggerhead sea turtle, a torpedo ray and an ocean sunfish. Bob Prescott leading the loggerhead sea turtle necropsy. Bob Prescott, Director of Mass Audubon and Krill Carson (NECWA) provided talks on sea turtles and ocean sunfish for Field School participants, helping to put it all together. Over the course of the weekend, one live Kemp's ridley sea turtle was found on Skaket Beach and transported to the rehab facility at th

Tiffany photographing Mars. 7 am Pelagic Bird Trip out of Chatham, MA This morning, Tiffany and I joined my good friend Blair for a pelagic birding trip aboard the Kittiwake out of Chatham, MA. The morning was cold, but clear and we were both very excited about what we may see offshore. Large number of both pelagic birds and humpback whales have been reported off Chatham for the past few weeks. Perhaps we would see lots of both! We had great views of pelagic birds for much of the trip. And then at the end of the trip, we swung by some humpbacks that were feeding at the surface and right off the shoreline. What a show. Here are the whales we have identified so far. Indiana, Peninsula, Wizard, Cat Eyes, Salt, Mars, Bayou, Manhattan, Zeppelin, Rocker, Compass, Bounce, Azrael, Lichen, Pixar, Hippocampus, and Tatsu. Here is a short video from our trip that day. We were drifting near the whales, when they bubble netted right off the stern

Ocean Sunfish Season is HERE! We have been seeing quite a few ocean sunfish offshore during our whale watches out of Plymouth. This is the time of year that these pelagic fish come into our coastal waters to feed on jellyfish, ctenophores and other gelatinous critters. Here is a video taken by Leah, our staff member, when offshore aboard the Capt. John and Son II. Please report all sightings of live, happy ocean sunfish to our community-sighting network at www.nebshark.org . If you find a stranded ocean sunfish, live or dead, call Krill immediately at 508-566-0009. Thank you for you help.

Ocean sunfish right off our port bow.  Ocean sunfish season is now upon us. NECWA has received numerous sightings from our community sighting network on live and dead ocean sunfish seen in the waters off New England. Today, we had great looks at a large sunfish that was just southwest of Stellwagen Bank. We saw this animal during a whale watch charter with Capt. John Boats, Plymouth MA. New Bedford High School had joined us for a whale watch and this sunfish was our first sighting of the trip.  This fish was just taking it easy at the surface as we approached. As we watched this fish, it became curious about us and swam around the vessel a few times to get a good look at us. What was neat about this animal was how the eye could rotate sideways allowing the animal to get a good look at its surroundings even when floating on its side. Here is some video from today's sighting. To report your sightings of live ocean sunfish and basking sharks, please go