Humongous creature vanished from Atlantic Ocean centuries ago. Now one’s been spotted

Julia Daye
·2 min read
11

In the 1700s, the 60,000-pound gray whale of the Atlantic Ocean went extinct.

While these whales are abundant in other oceans, it is widely known among scientists that these creatures have been simply absent from Atlantic waters.

On March 1, however, scientists from the New England Aquarium were doing a routine aerial survey over the Atlantic Ocean, 30 miles south of Nantucket. Suddenly, from the airplane, they spotted an enormous animal swimming below.

It was 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,” research technician Kate Laemmle said in a March 5 news release from the New England Aquarium. “We were laughing because of how wild and exciting this was—to see an animal that disappeared from the Atlantic hundreds of years ago!”

Scientists could barely believe their eyes when they saw the extinct creature swimming below.
Scientists could barely believe their eyes when they saw the extinct creature swimming below.

Gray whales have been spotted only a handful of times in the Atlantic and Mediterranean since their disappearance, with five sightings in the past 15 years, according to the aquarium.

According to experts, the whale’s sudden reappearance is part of the animal’s response to climate change. Before global warming, the Northwest Passage, the corridor between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans would have been iced over. Not in recent years, aquarium experts said.

In summer, this historically frigid aisle has been ice-free. Now, gray whales are passing though, hopping from one ocean to the other in a way they couldn’t do last century.

The scientists took photos from above. Reviewing them later, their suspicions were confirmed: this was a gray whale.
The scientists took photos from above. Reviewing them later, their suspicions were confirmed: this was a gray whale.

Orla O’Brien, a research scientist, said people can learn about animal behavior from this recent influx of Atlantic-dwelling gray whales.

“These sightings of gray whales in the Atlantic serve as a reminder of how quickly marine species respond to climate change, given the chance,” O’Brien said in the release.

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