Endangered Blue Whales Spotted South of Martha's Vineyard And Nantucket

Several blue whales - the largest whale species on Earth - were spotted in southern New England waters last month by a survey team from the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. It marked the first time the Aquarium has documented a blue whale in the southern New England survey area.

On Feb. 27, the survey team was flying over the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument when they sighted a blue whale at the base of Lydonia Canyon. Just 24 hours later, on Feb. 28, the team saw two other blue whales 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard while conducting an aerial survey over southern New England waters.

“Seeing blue whales outside of their Canadian feeding grounds is rare in the Atlantic,” said Katherine McKenna, Associate Scientist in the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center, who was aboard both survey flights. “Finding them in two different areas of the ocean just 24 hours apart was a first for us.”

Blue whales are an endangered species, but little is known about the Western North Atlantic population. It is thought that this population may consist of only 400–600 individuals. They are best studied in their summer feeding grounds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada; sightings outside of this area are relatively uncommon. The Aquarium had sighted blue whales in New England waters just two other times before now: once in the Monument in 2020 and once off the coast of Maine in the fall of 2023. Other research teams in the area have also sporadically sighted blue whales in New England.

“Encountering blue whales spread out across the waters off southern New England likely means that oceanographic conditions are ripe for them to find food,” said Research Scientist Orla O’Brien, who sighted the whales during the Feb. 28 flight. “Blue whales can range over huge swaths of the ocean unseen by scientists, so each sighting gives us an important glimpse into their winter and spring movements.”

The Feb. 27 survey over Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument revealed some other exciting sightings, including two other species of endangered whales. In addition to the endangered blue whale, the aerial survey team spotted more than 300 animals, including three endangered fin whales, three endangered sperm whales, about 50 pilot whales, and hundreds of dolphins.