Video: Buckelwal was used up in the Potomac River Breach

There is a lot of marine life in the rivers of Chesapeake Bay. It is fun – but not so unusual – to take a look at the riverter, rays, beaver or even dolphins on our rivers. But it is unusual for a hump whale to violate the surface of the Potomac river.

Tom d'Addeva, a unique trading captain and sailing instructor, and his daughter, who was known online as Captain Boomies, delivered a boat from Baltimores inner harbor to the DC boat show at the end of April when they saw something surprising.

They traveled directly into the mouth of the Potomac with about 30 knots on board a 43-foot Pardo yacht. D'Avella says she saw a group of birds on the water surface. “Then we saw how this whale was unloaded exactly where the birds were and then fallen over,” he says. “We were so shocked!”

D'Avella was at the top of the boat, but his daughter quickly pulled out her cell phone to record. Take a look at the video below (we show you in real time and then in slow motion to make the apparent whale more visible):

We sent the video to experts from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, which has passed on to Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) and a biologist from Georgetown University that studied marine mammals.

Dr. Janet Mann, Professor of Biology and Pyshology in Georgetown, started the Potomac Chesapake Dolphin project in 2015. She believes that the animal that has been seen to break through the surface in the video is a small humpback whale. “The pectoral fin and shape give away,” she tells us. “Very, very cool!”

VIMS agree that several employees are apparently a youthful hump. A contact with NAVFAC, which manages the Us Navy Marine Species monitoring program and pursued humpback mirrors in particular, came to the same conclusion. The NAVFAC employee notes that the whale in the video is probably an annual and hikes back north from the Dominican Republic.

“We knew that a whale didn't belong there, it was really unusual,” says D'Avella. “I had seen her off the coast of Florida and on the British Virgin Islands [in the past]. “”

Navfac says that from time to time you see hump to Potomac in Chesapeake Bay.

During the thousands of hours, Mann's team spent dolphins in the lower Potomac, she says that they have never seen a humpback whale in the river. It is not uncommon for hump to be discovered at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay or directly off the Virginia coast during their migration. She wonders whether the menhade could put on to get closer.

In 2016, WTOP News reported on a possible hump, which was caught in front of the camera by a charter captain in the Chesapeake Bay east of Solomon, Maryland, near the mouth of the Patuxent River.

Buckels hike from her winter house in the Caribbean along the east coast and sometimes travel 5,000 miles.

Noaa asks that boat drivers remain at least 100 meters from most whales (and 500 meters from the endangered Atlantic right whale). If you see a whale in Chesapeake Bay, especially when it appears injured or died, you can report it to the Beaching Response program of the Virginia Aquarium by calling on 757-385-7575.