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Right whales return to Volusia coast: first sighting off Daytona Beach

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Winter is the season that the world’s most endangered large whale – the right whales – return to the Georgia and Florida coasts for their annual calving season.

This week was the first confirmed sighting of a whale off the Volusia coast this winter, said Julie Albert, with the Marine Resources Council, a Brevard County-based group that has a network of 800 whale-watching volunteers.

Calls to the whale hotline (888-979-4253) started around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday and the hotline received about 5 other tips, so there were plenty of people who saw the whale. The sighting was confirmed by the Marineland Right Whale Survey Project, which sent out its aerial team to find the whale and take photographs, she said. The whale was confirmed to be in the area of Daytona Beach Shores, just a couple miles north of Ponce Inlet.

There had been a whale spotted in Crescent Beach on Monday night and some think this may be the same whale, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Albert said that it’s late in the season for the first sighting, but this winter has been unseasonably warm, and the whales haven’t moved as far south. Albert joked that she’s looking forward to a cold front (and more whale sightings!). When we get another cold front, that would be at least one benefit for beachgoers.


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