Promoting Cooperation to Maintain and Enhance
Environmental Quality in the Gulf of Maine

Winter 2001

By Verna DeLauer

As the M/V Oceanic cruises from Portsmouth Harbor into the Gulf of Maine, the captain radios the Prince of Whales, another whale watch boat, to ask about sightings that day. “We had a small pod of lags just above the mud hole, and now we’re heading for a dumpster out near the prong,” a voice responds. The Oceanic’s crew is excited; there’s an abundance of life at their destination, Jeffrey’s Ledge. The captain punches in the coordinates, and they’re off to find the pod.

Onboard is Jen Hafner, the vice president of the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, a new nonprofit group that educates people about the importance of Jeffrey’s Ledge to the Gulf of Maine ecosystem. She explains that “lags” are a nickname for Lagenorhynchus acutus, the Atlantic white-sided dolphin. The “mud hole” is an area a few miles northeast of the Isles of Shoals. A “dumpster” is a nickname for humpback whales, presumably because of the whales’ awkward shapes and lethargic movements. The “prong” is a pointy ledge that juts out from Jeffrey’s Ledge and is about 17 miles southeast of Portsmouth.

Jeffrey’s Ledge is a long, shallow, glacial deposit that stretches from Rockport, Massachusetts to just southeast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It is surrounded by deeper water. This creates upwelling currents that bring phytoplankton and consequently zooplankton to the surface. This makes it an ideal habitat for humpback, finback and minke whales, white-sided dolphins, harbor seals, herring and other marine life.

The Ledge is an attractive ecosystem for researchers throughout the Gulf of Maine. The College of the Atlantic, Shoals Marine Laboratory, the University of New Hampshire and the Whale Center of New England all conduct research there. Information collected includes behavioral ecology, population monitoring, acoustic analysis and genetic research.

Jeffrey’s Ledge also supports human appetites. Commercial and sport fisheries pursue herring, mackerel, cod, haddock, bluefin tuna and various crustaceans and mollusks. Recreational fishing is also a popular summer activity.

Verna DeLauer (on left) with Blue Ocean Society’s President Dianna Schulte (second from right) and the society’s interns. Photo: Jen Hafner.

Even with its reputation as a highly productive habitat, the Ledge has little protection, according to the Whale Center of New England. Stellwagen Bank, a National Marine Sanctuary, includes the southeastern third of the Ledge. The Whale Center of New England is proposing the expansion of this boundary to include the entire Ledge. The expansion needs support. This can only happen through education. And that’s where the Blue Ocean Society finds its niche.

The society focuses on identifying local finback and humpback whale populations that seem to prefer Jeffrey’s Ledge as their summer habitat. It also studies the distribution of whales, basking sharks and ocean sunfish. These marine animals are especially interesting due to their staggering physical characteristics. Endangered finback whales are the second largest animal to have ever lived growing to 70 feet (21 meters) and up to 80 tons (72 metric tons) and yet can swim 35 mph. Endangered humpback whales have the longest pectoral fins of any whale in relation to its body length, and 15 foot-long (4.5 meters) flippers. They can sing for one hour without a single breath.

On the Prince of Whales, Dianna Schulte, the Blue Ocean Society’s president, is looking intently at the October seas for signs of life. One day it took several hours before spotting any whales. Then they spotted a whale a mile away. “As we approached the whale,” Schulte explains to me, “we noticed that its dorsal fin was almost completely missing. Its blow was angled off to the side, and its skin was quite wrinkled.”

Thinking it was an ailing humpback, they inspected further only to discover a healthy sperm whale. The boat was 18 miles off shore and in about 180 feet of water, unusual territory for a sperm whale. “One never knows what to expect on the ocean,” she says.

When they’re not researching whales, Schulte and Hafner are employed as teaching naturalists for whale watch companies, one in New Hampshire and one in Massachusetts. As the outreach coordinator for the New Hampshire Coastal Program, I had the opportunity to meet the two women when they volunteered for our monthly marine debris monitoring program. I was intrigued by their abilities to juggle challenging day jobs with long lived passions for whales.

Schulte and Hafner met during an internship at the Whale Center of New England in Gloucester. They became friends with a shared interest in collecting whale data around Jeffrey’s Ledge.

Schulte’s interest in marine biology began when she was a child on a whale watch tour with her mother. She caught a glimpse of a minke whale. That glimpse soon turned into a preoccupation. She spent two summers at the Shoals Marine Lab, volunteered at the Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire, and spent over two years working on an environmental cruise ship from Alaska to Baja, California. Similarly, Hafner’s interest in the marine environment started early on. Her grade school reports on whales evolved into a bachelor’s degree in natural resources. As a research intern for the Whale Center of New England, she became proficient at various research techniques.

Years after they first met, the women combined their expertise in whale research, interest in Jeffrey’s Ledge and teaching skills to start the Blue Ocean Society last year. They are able to use their data collected at Jeffrey’s Ledge for education and outreach.

The Blue Ocean Society conducts much of its outreach through its Web site (www.blueoceansociety.org) and with the help of several interns. Apart from research activities, the society has several educational programs in place. These include beach cleanups, school and group presentations and whale watch and general conservation information.

Overall, Hafner says, their main objective is to distribute information and educate the public. “Hopefully,” she adds, “as they learn more about the marine environment, people will be inspired to protect it.”

Verna DeLauer, the outreach coordinator for the New Hampshire Coastal Program, chairs the Outreach Committee for the Gulf of Maine Council.