A species of whale that scientists thought had not existed in the Atlantic Ocean for 200 years has been spotted on the US coast of Massachusetts.
A team of researchers captured footage of a gray whale off the coast of Nantucket Island while conducting overhead photography.
This species is usually found exclusively in the North Pacific.
“My brain was trying to understand what I was seeing because this animal shouldn't exist in these waters,” says Kate Laemmle, a research technician at the New England Aquarium. We laughed because it was so exciting to see an animal that had disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago.”
Gray whales are particularly notable for their lack of a dorsal fin and their mottled gray-white color.
This is the fifth time in 15 years that this species has been observed in the Atlantic or Mediterranean.
According to scientists at the New England Aquarium, climate change could explain why this specimen ended up on the other side of the world.
Since the sea passage in Canada that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is no longer icy for longer periods of time in the summer, the gray whale may have taken advantage of this to move towards the American east coast.