Martin Submits-
This whale was swimming along the Back Shore for a couple of hours this morning. I got some video footage with my drone, which I will post in the next day or two.
But here are a couple of frames that make it look like a North Atlantic right whale. if it is, it’s one of only 400 left on earth.
Pretty freakin’ awesome.
Good Morning Gloucester 
so cool… went over there but this amazing animal swam somewhere else. Welcome to Gloucester
LikeLike
After it disappeared, a bunch of us went to the rocks on Sherman’s Point to look for it. We stayed for about a half hour, and didn’t spot it again.
I got an email from a surfer who saw the crowd on the way to Good Harbor Beach. They ended up parking on Witham Street, on the other end of the beach, and said, “it was right there” in the shallow water by Salt Island.
Which is a tremendous bummer for me, because when I was on Sherman’s Point, I looked over there and saw it, but because my eyesight is so bad now, and because it was so close to the shore, I convinced myself it was just one of many surfers.
LikeLike
It is confirmed by NOAA and the New England Aquarium; it is definitely a rare North Atlantic right whale. From an email:
“The folks at the Aquarium concur that this is a young whale. They believe it might be one of the calves that was born in the winter of 2014, so about 2 years old. Hopefully they’ll be able to confirm that once they get all available images/footage. If that’s the case, then that makes this an even more valuable sighting. Survival rate for calves and juveniles during the first couple of years is somewhat low, so when we can confirm that a calf has survived we all get pretty psyched. ”
I will have my video ready shortly.
LikeLike
Wonder if that was the whale swimming around at Good Harbor Beach on Sunday morning when we were out surfing…
LikeLike
Yes, that is the whale!
LikeLike