Rare bowhead whale seen off Cape Cod for first time in history
A whale native to the Artic was seen off Cape Cod for the first time in recorded history, according to researchers at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies.
A bowhead whale was spotted in the waters east of Orleans in March by researchers at the center.
Bowheads, which are related to the right whale, generally inhabit the Arctic Ocean and the far northern reaches of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Researchers believe that climate change may be responsible for the appearance of the bowhead whale so far south.
"Arctic sea ice was the fifth-lowest since 1979. Sea ice conditions, combined with the anomalously warm winter and spring, suggest that impacts of climate change played a role in the unusual southern sighting of the bowhead,” said Dr. Cynthia Tynan, a researcher at the center.
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