{"id":665812,"date":"2026-05-13T03:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T03:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665812\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T03:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T03:24:10","slug":"its-not-capelin-time-but-a-humpback-whale-is-splashing-near-holyrood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665812\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not capelin time but a humpback whale is splashing near Holyrood"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When the capelin roll in on Newfoundland beaches, they bring hungry whales with them \u2014 but a scientist says these marine mammals can be spotted in our waters at other times of the year too.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, a humpback whale was spotted from the shores of Holyrood in Conception Bay and Memorial University marine ecologist Ian Jones said seeing these marine mammals off Newfoundland isn\u2019t actually unusual for this time of year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our humpback whales \u2014 that are really a national treasure for Newfoundland \u2014 they’re here in the winter time and some of them are here in early spring. So that it’s not unprecedented,\u201d he told CBC Radio\u2019s The St. John\u2019s Morning Show.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Humpback whale makes appearance in N.L. waters:\"\"<\/p>\n

A whale of a time in Holyrood<\/p>\n

Sightings of humpback whales in Holyrood prompt the question: is it too early to see whales? Marine ecologist Ian Jones explains what\u2019s behind this early sighting.<\/p>\n

Jones said more whales will be arriving in approximately six weeks time to coincide when the capelin rolls in, but other types of fish can attract whales too.<\/p>\n

Humpback whales are the most common type spotted off Newfoundland, he said. Most of the population winters in tropical waters of the Caribbean where they have their calves and live off stored fat they built up over their summertime visits to Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese animals move long distances and they’re deliberately coming here in the biggest numbers later during the summer to feed on the capelin,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n

\"AIn recent days, a humpback whale has been spotted from the shore of Holyrood. (Submitted by Carol Hedd)<\/p>\n

Whales appearing off Newfoundland in the winter and spring are usually males who are able to find pockets of other fish like herring, he said.<\/p>\n

While there might be less of an abundance of food off Newfoundland, he said the whales who hang about also don\u2019t have to make the arduous journey down south and could be conserving energy that way.<\/p>\n

He said females who are calving need the warmer waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir best option is really to migrate and they can just hang out in warm water, minimize energy expenditure while they’re down there, and then return to capture our capelin abundance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said he was recently on the online database Happy Whale<\/a>, where people submit photos of a whale\u2019s unique tail markings \u2014 also known as a fluke \u2014 to track individual whale sightings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat pattern is very distinct and it’s very relatively easy to photograph. And then by that individuals can be tracked. So it’s like a fingerprint,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n

He said one whale spotted near Holyrood Monday was recently clocked in the Caribbean, adding without seeing the fluke he can\u2019t say if the same whale has been spotted there in recent days.<\/p>\n

Download our free CBC News app<\/a> to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click here to visit our landing page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-665812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}