Dolphins check in early at the shore

Pods of Bottlenose Dolphins arrived early this summer, perhaps enticed by higher than normal water temperatures off the Wildwoods and Cape May.
Jeff Stewart Jr., manager and a captain of the Cape May Whale Watcher, docked at the Miss Chris Marina at Schellenger’s Landing, said he at one time thought the dolphins wintered as far south as Florida or the Caribbean. But a radio tag on a bottlenose showed the marine mammals spent the colder months near North Carolina.
He said dolphins usually appear in mid May here but they arrived in early April when the ocean water temperature reached 50 degrees. He said a group of almost 600 dolphins returns to the waters off Cape May each summer.
On an afternoon last week, the Cape May Whale Watcher boat spotted multiple pods of dolphins swimming three miles off Wildwood Crest, something usually seen only in August.
“We are the northernmost calving grounds for the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin and every year we witness between 110 and 120 newborn calves given birth here every year,” said Stewart Jr.
The number of dolphins off the Wildwoods and Cape May increases every year, said Stewart Jr. In the past three weeks, Stewart said he saw 10 to 20 newborn calves.
“The beauty of seeing them in the wild is they come over to you,” said Stewart Jr. “They are interested in the boat and come over and say, ‘Hi.’”
Stewart Jr. said dolphins are like the “people of the sea,” very intelligent.
He said the dolphins “eye” the boat and have excellent vision above and below the surface of the water. There are familiar dolphins the crew recognizes each year, even giving them names such as “Sharpie” who is missing the top one-third of his dorsal fin, and another called “Cojo” who has a small lump on his back.
How does the Whale Watcher locate dolphins?
Stewart said there are regular “haunts” were the Bottlenoses congregate such as Dolphin Cove between the Cape May Lighthouse and Second Avenue Jetty in Cape May.
Stewart Jr. also checks offshore shoals that have baitfish that attract dolphins. The Cape May Whale Watcher’s captains talk to commercial fishing and party boats via marine radio to get reports of dolphin sightings.
But radio reports from other boats are becoming less frequent because high fuel prices are keeping boats out of the water, said Capt. Jeff Stewart Sr., an owner of the Cape May Whale Watcher boat.
“Look out on the horizon, what do you see?” he asked. “No boats.”
He said a trip to fish in the canyon that once cost $1,000 in fuel, now costs $5,000.
Stewart Sr. stressed dolphins belong in the wild where they can live to be 20-years-old as opposed to dying in five years in a theme park.
The Whale Watcher has a new companion, a boat, rebuilt from top to bottom called The Spirit of Cape May, which will be used for a nightly dinner cruises and whale/dolphin cruises.
jfichter@cmcherald.com