It’s a Great Time to Spot Many Whales Off the Massachusetts Coast

Ah, spring!

The Earth is reborn in spring. The days are longer, and the breeze is warmer. Many flowering trees have bloomed, and fresh pinks, purples, greens, and yellows dot the landscape.

The birds are back, and proud mothers of the animal kingdom trot out their young to introduce them to the world.

Migrating whales are returning to their summer homes from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada. They pass Cape Cod and the Massachusetts shoreline on their trek northward, where food will be plentiful in the months ahead.

The Cape Cod Times reported that dozens of North Atlantic right whales and a few humpback whales have already been seen off the coast of Sandwich and the eastern mouth of the Cape Cod Canal, "with at least one venturing into the 17.4-mile waterway."

The paper noted, "The accumulation of whales in a given area for feeding is not unusual for the food-rich bay."

Amy Knowlton, senior scientist at the New England Aquarium, told Boston's WHDH-TV, "It's a spring plankton bloom that happens every year, and they know how to find it and show up here, so it's pretty cool."

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The North Atlantic right whale is an endangered species.

"Approximately 340 of these majestic marine mammals remain, including less than 80 breeding females," according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The northward whale migration occurs during the spring, creating opportunities for photographers and nature lovers to catch a glimpse as the whales come closer to shore to feed.

Some observers say the whales are returning in larger numbers this year.