SCITUATE, MASS. (WHDH) - NOAA researchers in Massachusetts asked for the public’s help this week in efforts to find a pair of missing devices used to study whales.
The orange whale tags are about six inches long and look like toy bugs, with suction cup feet and antennae, officials with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary said.
Stellwagen Bank supervisor Captain Peter DeCola told 7NEWS the tags are sophisticated systems, similar to a phone, that track whale movements.
“When the whale goes underwater, it’s really hard to tell what’s going on,” DeCola said. “It gives us a picture of that and we can take the data from the tags and recreate that.”
Researchers drop the tags from a drone. The tags’ suction cups then stick to the whale, usually only staying on for one to two days before they fall off and float to shore.
“We only have a few out at a time and then we recover and download the data and reuse them,” DeCola said.
Researchers believe the tags are somewhere along the Massachusetts shoreline, probably near Gloucester.
“We don’t lose very many,” DeCola said. “I’ve been here five years and we’ve only lost one and we recovered that on the beach in Wellfleet.”
Officials have asked anyone who finds one of the missing whale tags to contact stellwagen@noaa.gov or call the number listed on the tags themselves.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)