Aquarium offers ‘Scenic Coastal Cruise’ of the Sound

NORWALK — Cecilia Anderson pressed the binoculars to her face and peered off into the distance, waiting, hoping, that just maybe, she’d see something.

The 8-year-old, like many others in the region, just wanted to catch a glimpse of the humpback whales only a handful of Gold Coast residents have been lucky enough to see in the past week.

Anderson joined a dozen others — passengers and Maritime Aquarium employees — on a last minute Scenic Coastal Tour Thursday afternoon on the aquarium’s hybrid-electric catamaran in search of the massive sea mammals. Passengers came from as far as New Jersey, hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive whales.

“I was hoping I’d see whales and new fish I haven’t seen before,” Anderson said. “I went (whale watching) when I was 4 but I don’t really remember it.”

Three Humpback whales were spotted in Long Island Sound as recently as Sunday, marking the second year in a row the creatures have been seen in the salty inlet. Joe Schnierlein, research and university liaison for the Maritime Aquarium, said the return of whales is an indicator of improving Sound health, and that humpback whales haven’t been consistently seen in the Sound since the 1600s.

“This is really a huge deal,” Schnierlein said. “It’s really exciting for us to see this kind of marine life return to the Sound.”

Schnierlein said the whales are feeding on menhaden, or bunker, a schooling bait fish abundant in the Sound during the past two summers. Unfortunately, Schnierlein said depleting dissolved oxygen levels — caused by rising water temperatures — are forcing the fish to move out of the western Sound, which means the whales will likely follow.

Even so, Schnierlein is optimistic they’ll stick around if summer storms continue to replenish dissolved oxygen levels in the water to create an optimal environment for the bait fish, and therefore great feeding grounds for the whales.

Schnierlein said if whales continue to return to the Sound in coming years, it could lead to the growth of a secondary marine industry similar to that of Cape Cod, where out of work fishermen found jobs as whale watching guides after the massive mammals returned to Massachusetts coastal waters.

Sarah Nahabedian, a senior educator at the aquarium, joined passengers on the Thursday cruise, which wasn’t explicitly a whale watching cruise, but was scheduled at the last minute in hopes of catching sight of one. Nahabedian showed passengers how to catch plankton — a staple in the massive filter-feeders diet — and educated them on what to look for when searching for a whale.

“Even though we didn’t see any, it’s still encouraging to hear people are sighting them,” Nahabedian said. “It’s kind of like searching for a needle in a haystack when there’s only a couple whales in the whole Sound, but hopefully this won’t be the only time we see them this summer.”

Anderson’s father, John, brought his family from West Haven for the excursion. He has been on official whale watching trips on both U.S. coasts, and is fascinated by the mammals, which can grow up to 60 feet long.

“They’re just such amazing creatures,” he said. “We are determined to see whales some other time.”