New England Aquarium Aerial Survey Team Spots Extinct in the Atlantic Gray Whale
In early March the New England Aquarium announced their team had documented a gray whale in the Atlantic, south of Nantucket, where gray whales have been extinct for more than 200 years:
Gray whales are regularly found in the North Pacific Ocean and are easily distinguished from other whale species by their lack of a dorsal fin, mottled grey and white skin, and dorsal hump followed by pronounced ridges. The species disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean by the 18th century, but in the last 15 years, there have been five observations of gray whales in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, including off the coast of Florida in December 2023. Aquarium scientists believe the gray whale seen off New England this month is the same whale sighted in Florida late last year.
To explain the strange sightings, scientists point to climate change. The Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific through the Arctic Ocean in Canada, has regularly been ice-free in the summertime in recent years, partly due to rising global temperatures. The extent of the sea ice typically limits the species range of gray whales, experts say, as the whales cannot break through the thick winter ice that usually blocks the Passage. Now, gray whales can potentially travel the Passage in the summer, something that wouldn’t have been possible in the previous century.
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