A Rookie Whale Watching Naturalist’s First Year on the Water

A Rookie Whale Watching Naturalist’s First Year on the Water

By Abby van Hemmen

Note: You must register (at bottom left of screen) to receive the Zoom meeting link. You will receive an email with the meeting link the afternoon of the presentation.

Abby van Hemmen, a marine naturalist for Seastreak’s whale watching tours, will provide an overview of her first year overseeing Seastreak's whale watching cruises off Sandy Hook. Participants will get an inside look at what it takes to prepare for a whale watching season and for each day’s many surprises.

Using photographs from the 2020 season, Abby will identify and describe each of the diverse species encountered. Information covering biology, life history, conservation and current research will be shared through a series of stories from the boat.

NMHA will be arranging a whale watching cruise on Seastreak for later in May. Look out for an email notification later in April.

Abby van Hemmen, born and raised in New Jersey, studied marine biology at the University of Washington in Seattle and has returned to our area. She is a whale watching naturalist and marketing associate for Seastreak, the ferry company. Upon graduating, she worked as a sea otter researcher, and later earned her masters degree in education while teaching science in the New York City public school system. In 2020 Abby started working with Seastreak to provide a new service that brought customers on the water to locate and safely observe whales in the NY/NJ Bight out of Atlantic Highlands.