Endangered Whale That Turned up in Ireland, Shocking Scientists, Migrates to US Stunning More

Endangered Whale That Turned up in Ireland, Shocking Scientists, Migrates to US Stunning More

(left) the North Atlantic right whale when it was sighted in Ireland (right) and when it was sighted in Boston – credit, Naomi D’arcy (left) and Center for Coastal Studies, taken under NOAA permit 25740-03 (right) “But where else would one expect to find a right whale with Irish connections if not off Boston?” They were the words of Padraig Whooley with the Irish Whale & Dolphin Group, spoken in reference to a never-before-seen migratory pattern in the Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whale, as he noticed how it mirrored in humorous parody a pattern ever so common among the animal’s distant mammalian relations on land—Ireland to Boston. But make no mistake about it, an Irish N. Atlantic right whale emigrating to Boston has never been seen before, and the mere appearance of the individual adult in Irish waters was itself a sighting not recorded in 100 years. It may have happened before—when thousands of these gentle giants moved up and down the eastern and western coasts of t…