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Humpback whale spotted off Westchester in Long Island Sound

Whale seen off Larchmont and New Rochelle.

Matt Spillane
mspillane@lohud.com

Growing up on Long Island's north shore, John Meagher saw beluga whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, but never a humpback whale.

So it was quite a shock last Saturday when the clubhouse manager at the American Yacht Club in Rye saw a humpback whale breaching — or jumping out of the water — in Long Island Sound.

A humpback whale surfaces on the Long Island Sound near Larchmont and New Rochelle on Labor Day.

At the club, onlookers gathered on the lawn to catch a glimpse of the whale, which Meagher said was more than 20 feet long.

"They were astounded, basically," Meagher said. "Most members didn't believe it until they saw it with their own eyes."

The incident was among a number of recent humpback whale sightings off the Westchester shore in recent days, and comes on the heels of an Aug. 30 sighting of a humpback off Milford, Connecticut.

Crew members for Sea Tow Western Long Island Sound — a Marine services company based out of Mamaroneck — spotted the whale last Friday around 5 p.m., said John Pierce, who's been a captain with the company for five years.

He and two other men were about 2½ miles from shore, between Larchmont and New Rochelle, when they saw the humpback leaping out of the water. Then, on Labor Day the whale surfaced next to a Sea Tow boat.

"It was awesome," Pierce said.

The whale made another appearance on Wednesday during the Etchells North American Championship sailboat race hosted by the American Yacht Club. Pierce said the whale was spotted about 2 miles east of the club.

Pierce said he views it as a positive sign for conditions of the sound to see the humpback whale and other sea mammals in the area.

"It's great to see that," he said.

Joe Schnierlein, research and university liaison at the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk, Connecticut, said the whale sighting is more a sign that there's plenty of food available for them than an indication that the Sound is getting markedly cleaner.

"It's certainly healthier than it has been in the past 40 or 50 years, but a more likely explanation is that there's a lot of bait fish in the Sound this summer, and that's what's attracting whales," he said.

"We've had five whale sightings in the western part of the sound since Memorial Day," he said. "They come in and can scoop up literally tons of baitfish — it's like a smorgasbord for them. They won't stay long — once the food is gone they'll be gone too."

Reporter Rich Liebson contributed to this story.

Twitter: @MattSpillane