Rare gray whale, extinct in the Atlantic for 200 years, spotted near Nantucket

A gray whale extinct in the Atlantic for more than 200 years was spotted off New England last week in an “incredibly rare event,” the New England Aquarium said.

The whale was seen Friday 30 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, diving and resurfacing, apparently feeding, the aquarium said in a statement. Press release.

The aquarium’s aerial survey team circled the whale area for about 45 minutes and took photographs, later confirming that it was indeed a rare gray whale.

“My brain was trying to process what I was seeing, because this animal was something that really shouldn’t exist in these waters,” research technician Kate Laemmle, who was on the reconnaissance plane, said in a statement. “We laughed at how wild and exciting it was to see an animal that disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago.”

Gray whales, which lack dorsal fins, have mottled gray and white skin, dorsal humps, and pronounced crests, and are usually found in the North Pacific Ocean.

The species had disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean in the 18th century, partly due to whaling, the aquarium said. However, five have been observed in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters in the last 15 years, including one sighting in December vs. Florida.

The aquarium said scientists believe the gray whale they spotted is the same one spotted in Florida late last year.

So why are the sightings happening now? Scientists say climate change plays a role.

“The Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific across the Arctic Ocean in Canada, has been regularly ice-free in summer in recent years, in part due to rising global temperatures,” the aquarium said.

Without sea ice that normally limits gray whales’ range, they can “potentially travel through the Passage in summer, something that would not have been possible in the previous century,” according to the statement.

Orla O’Brien, associate research scientist at the aquarium Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life who conducts aerial surveys, said in a statement: “These sightings of gray whales in the Atlantic serve as a reminder of how quickly marine species respond to climate change, if given the chance.”