Right Whale Mother, Calf Reported In Corpus Christi Bay (WTF?)

[hatrack]

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Two endangered whales were spotted in the Corpus Christi Bay, well outside their typical winter territory of Florida and Georgia, authorities said. A tanker pilot reported seeing the two Northern right whales, believed to be a mother and a calf, Monday after he thought he may have hit one of them.

Northern right whales spend the winter off Georgia and Florida and the summer in New England waters and north to the Bay of Fundy and Scotian Shelf, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service. "It's an absolute mystery how they got here," said Tony Amos, a research fellow at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

Amos spotted the whales twice on Monday, first in the bay's ship channel and later near the Naval Station Ingleside, further out to sea, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported.

The whales have been listed as an endangered species since 1973, and the right whale population is thought to be at about 300.

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9686

[Brotherjohn]

1. Cool! I saw a pygmy sperm whale once in Pensacola Bay, off the bridge.

They live mostly in deep water in the Gulf, but at least one had recently beached in the area. It was too big and slow to be a dolphin, but too small to be anything else.

Orcas have been sighted off the Miss. River delta. Northern right whales are considered out of their range if spotted in the Gulf, but it has happened (obviously).

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lagniapp/whale.pdf

[hatrack]

3. Orcas in the Delta - very cool!

I had never heard of that before.

[xchrom]

2. i hope they''ll be alright.