April 3, 2023 — Roughly a fourth of all the North Atlantic right whales left on Earth are roaming the waters of Cape Cod Bay — a remarkable sight for any whale species, but particularly one so critically endangered that experts warn they could go extinct within the decade.
A flight crew of four from the Center for Coastal Studies spotted 79 individual whales while aboard a low-flying Cessna Skymaster on Thursday. Inclement weather sent the plane home early, leading experts to believe that number was likely a conservative estimate.
“I would anticipate that we probably have at least 90 to 100 whales in the bay right now,” said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, the director of research for the right whale ecology program at the Provincetown-based center. “It’s quite extraordinary.”