ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) - Over 100 volunteers are preparing for an annual survey of right whales off Florida’s coast.
Joy Hampp of the Marineland Right Whale Project says the volunteers’ mission is to track right whales offshore between St. Augustine and Ponce Inlet.
The whales are an endangered species. They were once considered the “right” whales to hunt because they swam slowly close to shore. Now about 535 right whales remain. They swim south off Florida and Georgia in the winter to have their calves.
Program director Jim Hain tells The Daytona Beach News-Journal (https://bit.ly/2iVejYI ) that the number of right whales spotted has been down the last three years.
The volunteers are assigned dates and times to watch for whales, particularly female whales with their calves. They also must record ocean and weather conditions.
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Information from: Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, https://www.news-journalonline.com
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