Humpbacks put on a show off the coast of Allenhurst

The humpback whales are here.

The large mammals have been feeding on schools of menhaden, a bait fish, while performing their usual parlor tricks such as lunge feeding and spy hopping.

"If they come straight out of the water and levitate. That's called spy hopping. They're checking their surroundings. If they have mouths open, full of fish, they're lunge feeding," said Capt. Jeff Stewart, who operates a whale-watching business on his boat, Cape May Whale Watcher.

Shore Fishing: Photo spots whales lunge feeding near boat

The whales movements down the coast to wintering grounds near the Dominican Republic is coinciding with the fall striped bass run. Stewart says he believes some of the whales remain here all year.

In recent weeks they have been popping up off Point Pleasant Beach one day and Long Branch the next. They've been within half a football field of the beach.

Saturday the action was focused off Allenhurst, where whales where splashing all around fishing boats that were engaged in striped bass fishing.

"The humpback whales are the most abundant. They're the ones everyone is seeing close to the shore and in all the photographs," said Melissa Laurino, a naturalist and marine biologist with the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center

Some of the encounters between whales and fishermen have been very close.

One fisherman that was off the coast Asbury Park in 50 feet of water on Sunday alleges his 17-foot Mako outboard was rammed by a whale. The encounter left a large crack in the fiberglass, according to the boat's owner, Nick Petrucha of Belmar.

Whale experts say boaters should keep a safe distance from the whales and cut off the engines if they know they are in the presence of whales.

Laurino said laws vary by whale species. Boaters have to keep 500 yards from a right whale, an endangered species. The humpback population here is not endangered, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Nonetheless boaters still are required to remain 100 feet from them, she said.

Dan Radel: 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com