VIRGINIA BEACH -- A warmer winter has means that humans have gotten in close contact with hundreds of whales that migrate each year from the North Atlantic south to the West Indies.
Riders on the sightseeing boats out of Rudee Inlet, hosted by The Virginia Aquarium, are seeing lots of whales.
"We've been taking photo identification pictures of all the individuals we have seen. So we have been able to identify 31 unique humpback whales that have been able to use this area,"said Jackie Bort a research tech at The Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.
Alexis Rabon is an educator at the Virginia Aquarium. On the sightseeing boat Rudee Flipper, she demonstrates a sort of "show and tell," holding up whale baleen that acts like a filter when they eat fish.
"For instance, last Saturday on the noon trip we saw approximately 20 whales. So it was bloats all around the boat. Very exciting! 12 confirmed humpback sightings," commented Rabon.
Humpbacks are the predominant whales that show up within a mile of the Virginia Beach shoreline. According to research tech Bort, it's all about the feeding.
"Really high numbers of menhadin and so that's what a lot of these larger species are feeding off of including tuna and stripers and the humpback whales that we are seeing in this area."
Sightseeing trips run out of Rudee Inlet on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and on holiday Mondays through March 18. For a complete list of times, click on this link.
