Out of the Depths: Sowerby’s Beaked Whales in the Wilmington Canyon
On June 18th 2023, the crew of the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center and passengers prepared to head offshore in search of marine life on a 24 hour pelagic trip to the Wilmington Canyon. At 9pm, the American Star left the dock, and steamed through the darkness of the night to a location…
A Whale of a Time
8/12/2022 – Breaching Humpback Whale, CMWWRC Database. Photo by Mackenzie Briggs. Friday, August 12th, 2022 had started like any normal day interning on the American Star for the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center. I prepared the equipment for a day researching Cape May’s marine life. I had no idea that this day would…
A World Worth Worshiping
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…
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 Sharks
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 Divers
When I was invited to intern for the 24-hour pelagic trip that was planned for June 3-4, 2022, I knew it was an opportunity I could not refuse. The chance to be on a boat for an entire day searching for offshore marine mammals, pelagic birds and other organisms seemed too amazing to turn down,…
The Mystery of the Oceanic Sunfish (Mola 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 Atlantic Horseshoe Crab, also called by the scientific name Limulus polyphemus, are prehistoric animals that have been on Earth for millions of years. They are in the Phylum Arthropoda. The horseshoe crabs’ structure dates 245 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period and they are more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions (Tanacredi, Bottom & Smith…