Premiere for France and Italy. A young gray whale has been discovered for the first time off the south coast of France and the Italian province of Liguria. This apparently got lost from the Pacific into the Mediterranean.
The approximately 15-month-old animal had been sighted several times in the past few days, reported the National Marine Mammal Stranding Network on Sunday. Accordingly, the eight-meter-long whale was observed off Morocco in early March and in the past few days off Rome and in the Gulf of Naples, as well “Orcaweb” approved.
Italians have already given the whale its own name: “Wally”as reported by local media. Video recordings show Wally dipping up and down off the Ligurian coast and throwing water fountains.
Swam in the Atlantic instead of the Pacific
Gray whales are extremely rare in the Mediterranean as their natural habitat is the North Pacific. Most of the population lives in Baja California in winter and in Alaska in summer. While a gray whale had already been sighted off Israel and Spain in 2010, the discovery was a first for France, said Adrien Gannier, veterinarian and member of the network.
“It is possible,” says Gannier, “that this California-born whale got lost in the Beaufort Sea during its first feeding season and that instead of returning to the Pacific, it swam into the Atlantic before getting lost in the Mediterranean. »
Experts are now hoping that the whale calf will continue its voyage towards the Gulf of Lion and then the Spanish coast before it can swim into the Atlantic Ocean near Gibraltar and then return to the Pacific via the northern waters. The animal is in good health, but has lost weight because its feeding habits are unsuitable for the Mediterranean, said Gannier. (SDA / kes)