BOSTON (WHDH) - New England Aquarium researchers who recently set off to document biodiversity and count the number of animals living and feeding in the waters 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod spotted 322 whales and dolphins, including a pair of endangered blue whale, officials announced Wednesday.
Researchers Orla O’Brien and Amy Warren recently surveyed the vast Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument for the first time during the winter months and immediately came across a group of 50 bottlenose dolphins, along with the two blue whales — the largest animals on Earth, the aquarium said in a news release.
One of the blue whales was said to be spotted directly over the monument’s 4,000-foot Oceanographer Canyon, the deepest in the underwater national park.
“While blue whales are known to frequent areas where deep canyons intersect with continental shelf edges, this sighting was important because the blue whale population in the Northwest Atlantic is thought to be only around 250 animals,” the aquarium said.
In 2016, President Obama designated three underwater canyons — one as deep as the Grand Canyon, and four seamounts as tall as the Rockies — as the first and only American Marine National Monument in Atlantic waters.
The monument is nearly 5,000-square miles and contains many rich ecosystems. The New England Aquarium and Mystic Aquarium played a crucial role in the designation.
“The marine monument is such an important area,” O’Brien said. “It plays a critical role in the life history of so many species of whales and dolphins that come here with their calves to find food. As marine mammal researchers, it’s such a thrill to fly in this area and see such a great diversity of animals.”
The aquarium team also spotted groups of striped dolphins with calves, as well as sperm, pilot, fin, sei, humpback, and Sowerby’s beaked whales during the trip.
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