Incredibly rare gray whale sighting

Marine life researchers have reported seeing a gray whale off the southern coast of Massachusetts last week, which they are calling an incredibly rare event.

An aerial survey team with the New England Aquarium spotted the whale 30 miles south of Nantucket on March 1; the aquarium says the gray whale has been extinct in the Atlantic for more than two centuries. More precisely, the whale was seen in the southwestern edge of Nantucket Shoals.

According to an aquarium spokesperson, the gray whale repeatedly dove and resurfaced during the survey, and appeared to be feeding.

“I didn’t want to say out loud what it was, because it seemed crazy,” Orla O’Brien, associate research scientist in the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium, was quoted in a release. O’Brien has been flying aerial surveys since 2011.

While the whale was on a dive, O’Brien showed the photos to research technician Kate Laemmle, who was also in 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 Laemmle. “We were laughing because of how wild and exciting this was — to see an animal that disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago!”

The aquarium reports that gray whales are regularly found in the North Pacific. They are distinguished by their mottled gray and white skin, and dorsal hump. 

In the past 15 years, there have been five observations of gray whales in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, including off the coast of Florida in December. Aquarium scientists believe the gray whale spotted last week is the same whale sighted last year in Florida.

Researchers with the aquarium point to climate change for the recent sightings. The Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific above Canada, has regularly been ice-free in the summertime in recent years, which they say is partly due to rising temperatures. The aquarium reports that the ice typically limits whale passage. Now gray whales can potentially travel the passage in the summer, something that wouldn’t have been possible in the previous century, the aquarium reports.

“This sighting highlights how important each survey is. While we expect to see humpback, right, and fin whales, the ocean is a dynamic ecosystem, and you never know what you’ll find,” O’Brien said. “These sightings of gray whales in the Atlantic serve as a reminder of how quickly marine species respond to climate change, given the chance.”