For the 35 passengers aboard the 50-foot Kekoa catamaran Sunday, hours of scanning the horizon south of St. Thomas paid off nicely around noon when two huge humpback whales breached the ocean surface and splashed down within view.
The dramatic sighting was a welcome boon for the Environmental Association of St. Thomas and St. John – better known as EAST – after a first attempt at its annual whale watch was cancelled by bad weather last week.
With fair winds, clear skies and plenty of volunteers, Sunday’s trip was a sellout for EAST, which the group’s president, Jason Budson, said was the biggest fundraiser of the year.
“It’s really about bringing folks out here and making them aware of this beautiful environment we have here,” said EAST board member Greg Miller Sunday as the Kekoa sliced gracefully through the water under sail.
Paul Jobsis, a marine biology professor at UVI and the trip’s enthusiastic guide, explained that humpbacks are in the middle of their annual migration between the frigid waters around Iceland and Greenland, where they feed during the summer, and the Caribbean, where they give birth to calves, usually in the Silver Banks some 200 miles off of the Dominican Republic.
He said endangered humpbacks, like the pair spotted Sunday south of French Cap, can grow to be as large as 45 tons, and their calves start out at around 15-feet long and between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds. He said it is often difficult to tell which way they are heading when sighted off the Virgin Islands. Sometimes, he said, they just seem to mill around.
“We just know they come back down here to the Caribbean every year,” he said, seeming as thrilled as anyone else aboard when the first humpback breached in the distance off the bow.
“OK! We can go home now,” joked the first mate, Jameson Witbeck. “Our job here is done!”
The whales breached twice each, once at the same time, and then vanished. But no one seemed too disappointed when they were gone.
“We figure it’s a win-win trip,” said Patti Maxwell, who was among a group of five visiting nurses nearing the end of their rotations at Schneider Regional Medical Center. “You either see whales or you get great day out on a boat. Either way it’s beautiful.”
It was all for a good cause, said Renata Platenberg, wildlife biologist for the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources.
Platenburg helped curious passengers identify sea birds and turtles they spied around French Cap and Buck Island and gave impressive inventories of the reptiles and other wildlife that live on each of the nearby cays.
She and DPNR named whales and dolphins the featured creatures for March under the agency’s “Do One Thing for Wildlife” campaign, which she said shared EAST’s goals of increasing environmental awareness.
“It’s about engaging the local community,” she said.
“You only take care of things if you understand them and appreciate them,” she said.
She and other passengers were treated to a long swim with green turtles off Buck Island later that afternoon.
“We’re so lucky to have this,” she said, as she dried off.
Platenberg and Jobsis volunteered their time and expertise for the cause Sunday, as did brothers Ryan and Jameson Witbeck, who donated their sailing skills and their treasured Kekoa, which they designed and built themselves.
Passenger and EAST member Dale Garee boasted that collectively they spotted 15 green turtles and a lone sting ray off Buck Island in the afternoon – that was in addition to the pair of hawksbill turtles, boobies, frigates, tropicbirds and whales they racked up the rest of the day.
“I’ve been on this trip three times and saw whales twice,” he said, promising a return.
“I didn’t care if we saw any whales or not,” said 74-year old Bryson Rhymer while strolling around the Kekoa’s deck. “I really just wanted to be out here and do nothing all day in all this beauty.”
As the whale watching season winds down towards its usual end in April, Budson said EAST plans one more whale watching trip on March 21, weather permitting. Anyone who bought a ticket for the original rained-out trip scheduled for March 7 can use that ticket, he said.
The Kekoa will depart the National Park Dock in Red Hook at 8:30 and return at 3:30. Tickets — $55 for members and $65 for non-members – can be purchased from the Dockside Bookstore or East End Secretarial Services on St. Thomas and Connections of St. John. For more information, call 774-1837 or 777-7190.
