Whales Near New London

Whales have been spending some time near the eastern end of Long Island Sound in recent days, although what kind of whales seems to be unknown still, and exactly where they are is a bit vague. Today's Newsday says:

A pod of whales - usually found in the deeper waters of the Atlantic - has been swimming in Block Island Sound off of New London, Conn., for the past week.

Then the story says:

Robert DiGiovanni, director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, said "We don't get a lot of reports of those animals in that area but this year there has been unusual weather patterns with such a mild winter. ... We've have reports of whales in Long Island Sound over the years but they are hard to verify."

So where are they? Block Island Sound is the strip of water between Block Island and mainland Rhode Island. If whales are in Block Island Sound, they're not off New London in any but the most general sense -- they'd have to be in Long Island Sound (or Fishers Island Sound) to be off New London.

Regardless, it's an interesting occurence. The whales seem to be healthy and feeding, and with any luck they won't meet the same fate as the dolphins that swam into a cove of Long Island's north fork a couple of weeks ago.