(Featured video courtesy of Michelle Gula)
One mammal was busy off the shores of Ocean City over the weekend.
Whale breaches off OCMD beaches (Photo: Erin Bonner Grunden)
There were multiple sightings of a whale breaching up and down the Ocean City, Md. coastline beginning at 121st Street, lasting all the way until 132nd Street. The whale breached just long enough to catch it on camera.
Erin Bonner Grunden lives in Ocean City and teaches at Berlin Intermediate School. Grunden had the day off on Friday due to a teacher’s convention and decided to make it a beach day. Grunden says there weren’t many people on the beach besides a man fishing and a few people walking their dogs.
“I was reading my book and heard the man who was fishing yell in an urgent voice, ‘Hey! Come here!’ while flagging me over. I thought something was wrong so I ran over with my phone in hand.”
Grunden says the man told her there was a whale breaching about 200-300 yards out and she couldn’t believe how close it was.
“I was in awe and so excited to see this,” Grunden says. “I was in the right place at the right time!”
Michelle Gula who decided to travel to Ocean City as a last minute decision, knew she made the right one.
Her husband John was playing football on the beach with the couple’s 12-year-old son and Gula had gone back to their condo with one of their 4-year-old twins.
“He thought he saw a spray come from the water and then they both saw a tail,” Gula says. “They sent me a text so I came back and we kept watching that area and noticing a lot of birds circling that spot. It popped up a few times but as it got closer to the shore it came out of the water further.”
At first, Gula thought they saw a dolphin, but was shocked to find out otherwise. The family visits Ocean City often and says this was a first.
“We were all very excited to see a whale in Ocean City,” Gula says. “All of our children have been telling everyone about the whale since we returned home to Pennsylvania.”
Grunden and Gula both said after capturing a couple videos, they were worried about the welfare of the whale. We reached out to Maryland Coastal Bays to learn a little bit more about why whales breach. Although she admits she isn’t an expert, Sandi Smith, development and marketing coordinator for MCBP, says there are a few different theories to why whales breach.
“The theory is breaching is basically to a way to thwart off predators, or sometimes they are teaching their calves,” Smith says. “They could also breach to attract bait fish.”
