BOSTON — Researchers have discovered that a North Atlantic right whale recently sighted in Massachusetts waters is the same individual reported off Ireland last year, an “extraordinary” connection showing the whale traveled 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

While conducting an aerial survey on Wednesday, Nov. 19, observers from the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) Right Whale Ecology Program sighted a North Atlantic right whale off the coast of Boston that scientists in the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life confirmed had previously only been seen in Donegal Bay, Ireland, in July 2024, reported by the Irish Whale & Dolphin Group.

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