Harbormaster Spots Humpback Breaching in Narragansett Bay

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI—Boating season is basically over and North Kingstown Harbormaster Ed Hughes now makes his rounds on land. But today, he wished he was on a boat.

Still, Hughes was able to witness a remarkable sight: a humpback whale breaching, splashing and frolicking in Narragansett Bay for nearly an hour.

“It was an amazing thing to see,” Hughes said in a telephone interview. “Of all my years, I’ve never seen this. I’ve seen whales, but not a humpback whale in the middle of Narragansett Bay.”

The enormous creature at first seemed to be a boat in trouble. Hughes said he saw a splash but when he looked closely, it was the whale, fully breached out of the water.

His reaction?

“Oh yeah!” he said.

Hughes took some photos, which came out a bit grainy but are clearly that of a large whale breaching.

Hughes said it breached at least 25 times before it started slapping its tail for another ten minutes and then splashed around some more before swimming off.

He used his binoculars to make sure there was no netting on its fins or other indications the mammal was in trouble.

“It looked fine. It looked like it was having a good time,” Hughes said.

The town’s harbormaster for the past six years, Hughes has spent more than three decades of his life on the water. He’s seen dolphins, a group of beluga whales last year, but never something as awesome as this.

“I’ve seen them over by Beavertail,” he said, noting that the herring run near there and the whales come to feed. “But I never thought I’d seem them under the bridge. That’s unheard of.”

Hughes got his glimpse looking out from little Allen Harbor in North Kingstown. He estimated the whale was located about a mile-and-a-half to two miles out. In the pictures, the land in front of the bridge is Prudence Island.

The entire time, Hughes rued his boat “is in the pond away for the season.”

Still, “it was cool,” he said. “It was a nice way to end the season.”

Photos courtesy: Ed Hughes