Whale not seen in 200 years spotted in New England waters, scientists say

NANTUCKET, Mass. (WFSB/Gray News) - A gray whale that hasn’t been seen in 200 years has been spotted off the coast of Massachusetts, according to officials with the New England Aquarium.

Aquarium scientists said the whale was seen on March 1 while they were flying over the ocean 30 miles south of Nantucket.

Orla O’Brien is the associate research scientist in the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. She said seeing the whale was completely unexpected.

“I didn’t want to say out loud what it was, because it seemed crazy,” she said.

While the whale was on a dive, O’Brien showed photos of the whale to research technician Kate Laemmle, who was also in the plane.

“My brain was trying to process what I was seeing, because this animal was something that should not really exist in these waters,” Laemmle said. “We were laughing because of how wild and exciting this was—to see an animal that disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago!”

The scientists said gray whales are usually found in the North Pacific Ocean and are easily distinguished from other whale species by their lack of a dorsal fin, mottled gray and white skin, and dorsal hump followed by pronounced ridges.

The species disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean by the 18th century; in the last 15 years however, there have been five observations of gray whales in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, including off the coast of Florida in Dec. 2023, according to researchers.

Aquarium scientists believed the gray whale spotted off New England this month was the same whale sighted in Florida late last year.

Scientists pointed to climate change as the reason for the gray whale sightings in New England waters.

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 said, 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.

“This sighting highlights how important each survey is. While we expect to see humpback, right, and fin whales, the ocean is a dynamic ecosystem, and you never know what you’ll find,” O’Brien said. “These sightings of gray whales in the Atlantic serve as a reminder of how quickly marine species respond to climate change, given the chance.”