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Even more whales are visiting Boston Harbor
One whale was seen around Deer Island Thursday, and its breaching could be seen from land.
More whales visited Boston Harbor this week, with the breaching animals sometimes even visible from land.
Since a sighting on Monday in Dorchester Bay, another whale was seen between Deer Island and Long Island Bridge Wednesday afternoon. NBC10Boston photographer Mark Garfinkel shared an image of the whale’s dorsal fin among dozens of fishing boats.
Garfinkel wrote that the fishermen were after some striped bass, but most took a break to see the whale peak over the water.
Nicole Ridge, of Nantucket, shared images with Boston.com of a breaching whale she saw in the harbor Thursday morning. She was fishing in Boston Harbor with her father, a charter captain, when she was able to capture the whale leaping out of the water.
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“Something we both found remarkable today was the attentiveness of not only the Environmental Police but also the Boston police boat to keep a perimeter around the whales to keep them safe,” Ridge said in a email. “All of the other boats fishing in the area were equally respectful.”
The whale put on the show in front of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle, which is set to meet the USS Constitution near Castle Island on Friday.
Garfinkel captured more images from Deer Island Thursday for the news station, showing the whale with two Massachusetts Environmental Police boats.
Multiple Harbor whale sightings this week
Thursday’s appearances make four sightings just this week, which experts say could be concerning for the whales. Last week, a 2-year-old humpback whale surprised whale watching tours in the harbor. A naturalist with the tours said the whale could have been in distress or just chasing down prey.
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Linnea Mayfield, the naturalist manager with Boston Harbor City Cruises, said last week that seeing a whale in the Harbor isn’t rare, but it’s not very common. The humpback then was closer in the Inner Harbor near the Conley Terminal.
“This does occur every few years,” Mayfield said. “We don’t see it quite that far in the harbor often.”
Mayfield warned boaters to give the whale a wide berth, which appeared to be happening in Ridge’s pictures.
“It does make all of us who work in the whale watching world quite nervous,” Mayfield said last week, “because it does put whales at heightened risk of vessel strike and other threats.”
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