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Whale Lovers Catch an Eyeful in Gloucester
| Article
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10881 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1986 |
1,768 Words |
| Author
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Heidi Hughes and Tom Valega
Heidi Hughes is a travel and adventure writer living in
Washington, D.C., and is the recipient of the 1983 John
Merriman award. Tom Valega is a scientist at the National
Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and has done
extensive travel writing. |
"Thar she blows! Whale at one o'clock! Looks like a hump back!"
That's not the call of a nineteenth-century whaling boat off Hawaii; rather, it's a cry that can be heard with increasing frequency in the western North Atlantic off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Each summer over one hundred thousand humans school to the small fishing town to catch a glimpse of the nearly five hundred individual whales known to feed and play in Massachusetts Bay. At $15 a head, that's not just plankton for the six companies operating whale watch tours from the region known as Cape Ann.
Finback whales off shore means "fins" back in the pockets of whale-watch captains. Last year they sold about a million dollars worth of tickets, comprising about 95 percent of their income. The rest came from galley, film, photos, and T-shirt sales.
Dozens of other local merchants also benefit from whale watching. Many tourists who come for the day, discover whale-watching, get "harpooned," and end up staying in town an extra night.
"I'd estimate the total economic impact of the whale watch industry at $8 million," said Mike Linquata, owner of the Privateer, the largest whale-watch boat in Gloucester.
But why Gloucester, and not Portland, Baltimore, or Staten Island?
"Gloucester is probably the closest landmass to a large seasonal population of whales," said Linquata.
Indeed, there are very few places where whales congregate. The one Linquata talks about, the Stellwagen Bank, is less than a dozen miles from Gloucester. This rich underwater feeding ground harbors whales from April to October.
Boat captains are so confident about finding whales there that they offer a money back guarantee. Linquata admits there have been some close calls, but he could only remember one time when he had to pass out the rain checks.
Once you know where to look, the boat captains say, whales are relatively easy to spot. After all, they are…well, whales. A fully grown hump back, the most common of the four
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