Sad reason whale returns to Atlantic Ocean after 200 years
A grey whale has been sighted 200 years after they disappeared from the Atlantic.
200 years after grey whales mysteriously disappeared from the Atlantic, a researcher has snapped aerial photographs of one returning to the ocean.
As the plane circled for 45 five minutes last Friday, it became clear to the crew on board the scientific surveillance flight they were seeing something incredibly rare. “I didn’t want to say out loud what it was, because it seemed crazy,” researcher Orla O’Brien said.
She was part of a team from New England Aquarium that watched the whale dive and feed 50 miles south of Nantucket, a small island off the coast of Massachusetts in the US. The team were able to identify the creature based off its lack of a dorsal fin as well as its mottled grey and white colouring.
A technician on board the plane, Kate Laemmle, said her brain was struggling to process what she was seeing. “We were laughing because of how wild and exciting this was – to see an animal that disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago!”
Why they vanished remains unclear, but whaling and climatic events have both been linked to the event which occurred in the 1800s.
Grim reason whale was likely in the Atlantic
But while the sighting initially thrilled whale researchers, the Aquarium later issued a grim warning. The re-emergence of the species is likely because of climate change. The researchers believe rising global temperatures have led to the Northwest Passage, which links the Atlantic and Pacific, becoming frequently ice free, and this allows the whales to pass through for the first time in a century.
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It’s actually one of 15 possible observations of grey whales in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters over the past five years. Researchers believe the same whale seen in Nantucket could have been observed in Florida late last year.
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