You soak in your last glimpse of the horizon line, then you descend into the turquoise world, toying with your buoyancy until you weigh nothing: you are part of the sea now. Your feet propel you forward and there in front of you lies the silent city and boy is it bustling. Your curiosity mirrors […]
You are browsing archives for
Author: Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center
The Loggerhead Sea Turtle
As we make our way off the shore of Cape May to look for our larger marine mammals the water becomes increasingly clearer, and this is when it happened! For the past couple of weeks, the water temperature had been consistently over 70 degrees and more wildlife was being spotted. I had seen tons […]
Three Simple Ways to Do Your Part
If you are anything like me, your social media feed may be flooded with the dire state of our oceans. While this fact is rather unsettling, all hope is not lost. In fact, there are three simple lifestyle changes you can make that would have an immediate positive impact on our oceans. Switch to […]
The Hydrodynamic Head of Hammerhead Shar...
When interning on a whale watching boat, of course the main goal is to find and spot some whales and dolphins. For me, I was always secretly hoping that on our outing we would come across my favorite marine animal, sharks. My wish came true and my favorite day on the boat turned out to […]
Don’t Release Your Balloons!
Here at Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center we participate in the Clean Ocean Initiative. Each time marine debris is spotted during the cruise we collect it and record the day, weather conditions, as well as take a picture of the debris. Balloons are our most collected piece of debris. It is important to […]
Deep Sea Adventures and Deeper Sea Diver...
Cuvier’s beaked whales hold the record for the deepest dives made by a marine mammal. They have the capability of diving at least 3,300 feet and their deepest dive ever recorded was 9,816 feet!
The Mystery of the Oceanic Sunfish (Mola...
One of my most impactful experiences happened aboard the American Star on May 26, 2022. It was my third day as an intern at the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center and Icould not wait to get out into the open waters. As we were leaving the inlet to enter the AtlanticOcean, that’s when […]
Horseshoe Crab Spawning in New Jersey
The Bottlenose Dolphin: Almost Human?
The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is a remarkable marine mammal known for its unusually high level of intelligence. In fact, the bottlenose dolphin is the second most encephalized being on the planet after humans, meaning that they have a very large brain-to-body ratio (Grimm, 2017). The encephalization quotient (EQ) is defined as the ratio between […]
The Impending Extinction of the Vaquita
In 2017, I purchased one of my first travel mugs. A percentage of this purchase went to fund conservation of the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), which is a small porpoise endemic to the Gulf of California in Mexico (Porpoise Conservation Society). I still use this mug today- I’m using it as I write this blog post. […]