NAGS HEAD, N.C. — It's not every day, every month or every year that an orca is spotted off the coast of North Carolina, but that's just what happened last week miles offshore of Kitty Hawk.
“We shouted so loud, we blew out the audio panel in the plane," said Meghan Bradley, the lead for the North Carolina Right Whale Aerial Survey Team.
That was Meghan Bradley and her team’s reaction once they got close enough to confirm it.
“We thought it was a right whale calf at first. Thought it was a shark at first, and then we realized what we were looking at," said Bradley.
“There have been sightings of killer whales in North Carolina waters before, but boy, are they rare," said Dr. Ann Pabst, professor emerita at University of North Carolina Wilmington and a Marine Mammal Biologist.
Dozens of different species of mammals have been documented in the Outer Banks and North Carolina’s coast.
“We have a lot of whale diversity, lots of different species, and that's probably the oh wow of my career. I just didn't see that coming. I think we've documented 35 different species of just cetaceans, which is a taxonomic term that refers to whales, dolphins and porpoises,” said Keith Rittmaster, the director for Bonehenge Whale Center.
"It's off the North Carolina coast where the "cold finger" or the Labrador Current meets the Gulf Stream. So we have a high diversity of species, both southern species and northern species, and we also have very nutrient-rich waters. North Carolina is the place because it offers resources for our whales, our whales are here for either feeding or moving or probably giving birth," said Pabst.
In the Outer Banks specifically, some of the ones we might see are North Atlantic Right Whales and Humpback Whales. An unusual mortality event has been declared for both, Humpback Whales since 2016 and Right Whales since 2017. A dead juvenile humpback washed up in Kitty Hawk in late December of last year.
“Two days ago we surveyed and right at the shelf break, about 30 miles offshore of Rodanthe, there was just a pile of 40-50 humpbacks in that area, so definitely a hot spot for them this time of year," said Bradley.
Since late fall of last year, dozens of right whales have been documented on North Carolina’s coast.
“We've narrowed it down to 41 individual Right Whales, and just to put that into perspective, they are critically endangered, and that's around 11% to 12% of the species sighted on the North Carolina coast since November," said Bradley.
Though it's special for any person to be able to see whales in their natural habitat, researchers are also thinking about conservation efforts. That includes fishing line entanglements, ship strikes and even marine debris like balloons.
“We don't really understand yet how climate change will be affecting all of these species. As waters warm, as prey move, and the threats that these animals face as they make these movements, from ship strikes and entanglements is a real concern for all of us," said Vicky Thayer, the North Carolina Marine Mammal Stranding coordinator.
"There has been a big push now to look for ropeless gear, which is a really cool new technology that you don't have vertical line anymore. We know that these whales are entangled in vertical line pretty extensively," said William McLellan, an adjunct professor at UNCW and the co-founder of the Marine Mammal Stranding Program at the school.
