Photo: New England Aquarium
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Calling it an "incredibly rare event," a New England Aquarium aerial survey team spotted a gray whale in New England waters last week.
The species has been extinct in the Atlantic Ocean for more than 200 years. The sighting marks just the fifth documented observation of a gray whale outside the Pacific Ocean in centuries.
Aquarium officials said its scientists were flying 30 miles south of Nantucket on Friday, March 1 when they sighted an unusual whale who appeared to be feeding. They circled the whale for 45 minutes taking photos.
Later, they were able to confirm that the creature was indeed a gray whale.
"My brain was trying to process what I was seeing, because this animal was something that should not really exist in these waters," New England Aquarium Research Technician Kate Laemmle, who was on the plane, said in a press release. "We were laughing because of how wild and exciting this was—to see an animal that disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago!"
Aquarium scientists said they think this is the same whale seen in Florida last year, and that rising global temperatures could explain the strange sighting.
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