Published56 minutes ago
Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing
Image source, New England Aquarium
Published56 minutes ago
A gray whale was spotted off the coast of New England last week, marking a rare sighting for a species that has been locally extinct in Atlantic waters for centuries.
It was spotted by a team of scientists with the New England Aquarium.
The whale was seen repeatedly diving and resurfacing, apparently searching for food, the aquarium said.
Scientists who spotted the animal say they were in disbelief over the sighting.
“I didn’t want to say out loud what it was, because it seemed crazy,” said Orla O’Brien, an associate research scientist at the aquarium who was part of the aerial survey team that saw the marine mammal on 1 March.
The whale was spotted 30 miles (48km) south of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Ms O’Brien took photos of it, which she showed to research technician Kate Laemmle, who was also on the plane.
“My brain was trying to process what I was seeing, because this animal was something that should not really exist in these waters,” said Ms Laemmle.
According to the New England Aquarium, gray whales are easy to spot due to their lack of a dorsal fin, as well as their mottled grey and white skin.
While they are a common sighting in the North Pacific Ocean, these whales are locally extinct in Atlantic waters, where they have not been spotted since the 18th Century.
But in the last 15 years, there have been five documented observations of gray
The post Rare sighting of gray whale off New England coast appeared first on EnviroLink Network.