One of the avian species we see every year are puffins, the cute football shaped black birds with the colorful striped beaks. Typically we only see four or five on any given day, but this year was a different story. Nearly every day we were out this season we had lots of puffins--puffins alone, in pairs or trios and occasionally in flocks of 8-12! And in late August we even had a rare sighting of an albino puffin! Why all the puffins? We have no idea, but we've certainly had fun watching them.


There were two other bird species that seemed much more prevalent this year than in the past: Northern Fulmars and Jaegers. Fulmars are usually found offshore, so the number of sightings we've had is surprising. What's great about fulmars is that they always seem a little curious about us. They literally turn their heads to check us out as they fly by.



Jaegers are aggressive seabirds that engage in kleptoparasitism--harassing other birds to force them to drop food they are carrying. As with puffins and fulmars, we've had a bumper crop this year. Find out more about all three of these interesting seabirds here.



The Bay was hopping with Bluefin tuna, especially in September. It's always exciting to see schools of these magnificent fish leaping out of the water as they pursue their unlucky prey.



In addition to the birds in the Bay of Fundy, we've also had an influx of humpback whales in areas that are usually the exclusive domain of right whales. It's not that humpbacks aren't seen in the Bay, they are, but they tend to aggregate further to the south and east. In years past, a big humpback count would be three in one day, but on a recent trip we counted 15! One of the humpbacks spent several minutes flippering, i.e. slapping it's long (12')pectoral fin against the water. Quite a bizarre sight when you're used to the black , paddle-shaped and comparatively stubby flippers of the right whale. The latin name for humpbacks is Megaptera novaeangliae, which means "big-winged New Englander"... it's easy to see why it got that name!



All of these species are not uncommon in the Bay of Fundy, but what has been interesting is the number of them. Why are so many humpbacks, fulmars, jaegers, puffins and tuna in the Bay this year? And could there be any correlation with the right whales' unusual northerly distribution, not seen in 30 years? Nature, as always, holds puzzles that we have yet to figure out.

-Marilyn

-Marilyn and Yan

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Entanglement in fishing gear is still one of the biggest threats facing right whales. Nearly 75% of the whales in this beleagured population carry entanglement scars, and we know that at least 20-30 right whales have died or been fatally wounded from entanglements. We are grateful that Ruffian is one of the lucky ones...

Named for a town in Germany, Lubec is sleepy now (Pop: 1200), but it was once a bustling city --the sardine capitol of the world. Not only were there 48 sardine canning factories, but the town boasted herring smokehouses, movie theaters, hotels, four post offices, steamship service from Boston and a ferry to Eastport, Maine. The peak of Lubec's economic prosperity came during WWII when demand for herring and sardines was high and foreign imports were few. But in the years following the war, foreign competition increased, American tastes began to change (when was the last time you had smoked herring?), and fish stocks became depleted. With those three factors came a long economic decline.

One by one the various factories went out of business. The McGurdy Fish Company was the last operating commercial smokehouse in the U.S. when it finally closed its doors in 1992 (it is now a historical interpretive site open to the public). All the sardine canneries have shut down, with one exception--Peacock's-- but instead of sardine canning, they now raise urchins and sea cucumbers for foreign markets, and extract salt for "Quoddy Mist" sea salt. The steamship and ferry service stopped decades ago. The closest big city (and big airport) is Bangor, a two hour drive inland, and the nearest movie theaters are in Calais (pronounced Cal'is) or Milbridge, both an hour away.

But Lubec still has a lot to offer. There are restaurants and coffee shops, a good library, a few B&B's ... and two chocolate shops! There's also a popular music school called SummerKeys that brings musicians to the town and offers wonderful concerts during July and August.

To see more photos of the town, take a look at the 'Lubec' album in our online photo gallery of images from the season. And for more information about Lubec and the surrounding area check out: http://www.visitlubecmaine.com/

-Marilyn