Photo: Tim Dunn (WBZ)
BOURNE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Make way for the whales.
The Massachusetts Environmental Police closed the Cape Cod Canal Sunday to allow a female North Atlantic right whale and her calf to swim safely through the canal into Buzzards Bay.
The canal is closed to traffic by the Army Corps of Engineers whenever a right whale is spotted in the waterway and is not reopened until the whales have cleared it.
"We actually followed it," said Gina, a marine biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and one of the many onlookers observing the whales. "We got in our car and we were like, oh no, now it’s down that way. So we turned around and stopped about three times."
On Friday, several dozen North Atlantic right whales were spotted about a mile from the Cape Cod Canal. The Massachusetts Environmental Police estimated there were around 60 to 70 of the critically endangered whales, which is roughly 20 percent of their total estimated population of fewer than 350.
WBZ's Tim Dunn (@ConsiderMeDunn) reports.
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