The New England Aquarium announced that a gray whale, which had been extinct from the Atlantic Ocean for more than 200 years, was discovered off the New England coast last week in an “incredibly rare event.”
The whale was spotted 30 miles south of Nantucket Island on March 1 and appeared to be diving, surfacing and feeding, according to a news release from the aquarium.
The aquarium's aerial research team circled the whale for about 45 minutes, taking photos and later confirming it was indeed a rare gray whale.
“My brain was trying to process what I was seeing, because this animal was not supposed to be in this area,” Kate Lemmel, a research engineer who was on the plane, said in a statement. Because it wasn't there.” “It was so wild and exciting to see an animal that disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of years ago that we laughed.”
Gray whales, which do not have a dorsal fin, have mottled gray and white skin, a dorsal hump, and a prominent ridge, and are typically found in the North Pacific Ocean.
The species disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean by the 18th century due to whaling, the aquarium said. However, five have been sighted in the Atlantic and Mediterranean over the past 15 years, including one off the coast of Florida in December.
Scientists believe the gray whale they discovered is the same one seen in Florida late last year, the aquarium said.
So why are sightings happening now? Scientists say climate change is playing a role.
“The Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Canada's Arctic Ocean, has been regularly ice-free in recent summers, partly due to rising global temperatures,” the aquarium said.
The absence of sea ice that normally limits the gray whale's range may allow the whales to “migrate their routes in the summer, something that was not possible in the last century,” the release said.
Orla O'Brien, an associate research scientist at the aquarium's Anderson Cabot Marine Life Center who conducted the aerial survey, said in a statement: If you have a chance. ”
