First Ever Gray Whale Spotted South of the Equator in Atlantic Ocean

A gray whale spotted in a never-before-seen location -- the southern hemisphere off the coast of Namibia in Walvis Bay -- is astonishing news for marine scientists, who report that the species known to inhabit the North Pacific Ocean had been hunted to extinction in the Atlantic Ocean in the 1700s and not once been recorded swimming south of the equator.

Marine scientists have long understood that the gray whale's territory stretched from the high Arctic and northern Pacific Oceans and expanded all the way down to the coasts of Mexico and across the Pacific to the Korean peninsula. The confirmation of a gray whale in the Atlantic Ocean and below the equator has researchers speculating on the significance of the find.

It could be good news - that gray whales are recovering from a plunge in population and are expanding their range. Or it could mean that climate change is disrupting the whale's feeding habits and they have been forced to alter their previous way of life, the Guardian reports.

The gray whale in Walvis Bay was first spotted May 4 by a dolphin-watching cruise; about a week later on May 14th the whale was spotted again and photographed. Experts confirmed the creature was a gray whale, the first ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere

Scientists are pondering the origins of the whale. While it is possible that the whale swam around the southern tip of South America, it would have required travelling huge distances against strong currents through open seas, which is atypical for the gray whale, Discovery News reports.

A more likely explanation is that the whale swam through the increasingly ice-free Northwest  Passage at the top of Canada and out into the Atlantic, then guided itself south by keeping the coastline to its left, as it would when traveling south in the North Pacific. When a rogue gray whale was spotted in the Mediterranean Sea in 2010, researchers suggested the stray whale likely took the same course.

The photographer of the gray whale, John Paterson, of the Walvis Bay Strandings Network, told the Guardian the origins of the whale will remain a mystery.

"Is it another individual that has traverse the Northwest Passage, or perhaps traveled around the southern tip of South America and across the Atlantic? Unfortunately, we'll never know the route it followed to get here," he said. 

Photos of the newly-found whale can be seen here.