{"id":234581,"date":"2026-01-08T17:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T17:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/234581\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T17:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T17:34:09","slug":"donegal-whale-in-extraordinary-sighting-in-us-coastal-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/234581\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal whale in ‘extraordinary’ sighting in US coastal waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Estimates suggest there are only around 380 North Atlantic right whales left<\/p>\n

One of the world’s most endangered whales that was first identified two years off the coast of County Donegal has been sighted for a second time some 3,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

The North Atlantic right whale was recorded near Slieve League in 2024 <\/a>\u2013 the first confirmed recording of the species in Irish waters.<\/p>\n

Now researchers have confirmed that a sighting in November 2025 in Massachusetts Bay in the United States is the same animal.<\/p>\n

“Seeing a whale photographed in Ireland reappear off Boston is extraordinary,” Dr Daniel Palacios from the US Centre for Coastal Studies (CCS) said.<\/p>\n

\"CenterCenter for Coastal Studies<\/p>\n

The whale was spotted again in November 2025 off Boston in the US<\/p>\n

“Encounters like this highlight both their resilience and the importance of international cooperation to support their recovery,” he said.<\/p>\n

Researchers believe it is the first documented case in which a whale initially identified in the eastern North Atlantic has been later resighted in the western North Atlantic.<\/p>\n

North Atlantic right whales are among the planet’s most critically endangered large ocean mammals.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is believed there are only around 380 remaining.<\/p>\n

Using photographs of the 2024 County Donegal sighting, experts at the New England Aquarium – which curates the North Atlantic Right Whale Photo ID catalogue – in the United States, have now photo-ID matched and identified the animal sighted in November 2025.<\/p>\n

CCS researchers Ryan Schosberg and Annie Bartlett spotted the whale while conducting an aerial survey off the US coast.<\/p>\n

“The first sighting of the year is always exciting, but we didn’t yet realise just how remarkable this one would turn out to be,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The distance between these sightings highlights both how far these animals are capable of travelling and how much we still have to learn about them.<\/p>\n

He added: “Findings like this highlight gaps in our understanding of right whale habitat use and indicate that these animals may range more widely than previously believed.”<\/p>\n

What is the North Atlantic right whale?<\/p>\n

North Atlantic right whales are like tanks in the water – heavy, wide and dense. <\/p>\n

They are also curious, acrobatic animals who can be seen breaching the water and smacking it with their flukes.<\/p>\n

For centuries, they were lucrative prey for whalers. <\/p>\n

In the medieval era, they were hunted by the Basques and later their blubber helped fuel the Industrial Revolution, when whale oil was used to lubricate factory machinery.<\/p>\n

Now their habitat overlaps with a heavily industrialised part of the ocean ranging from Florida to Newfoundland. <\/p>\n

\"IWDGIWDG<\/p>\n

The whale had been observed near Killybegs in County Donegal in 2024<\/p>\n

P\u00e1draig Whooley, of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) said any photo-id of such a large whale “requires a lot of effort and a fair bit of luck”.<\/p>\n

“When these matches are made across ocean basins, you need to get even luckier.<\/p>\n

“So, we had zero expectation of matching this solitary right whale from Donegal Bay in July 2024,” he said, adding Ireland was one of only four eastern North Atlantic countries that had a confirmed sighting of a North Atlantic right whale.<\/p>\n

He said if “pioneering individuals” like the one now sighted in US waters can find their way “to more suitable habitats in the Eastern Atlantic” then it may “potentially offer a lifeline for this struggling population.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Estimates suggest there are only around 380 North Atlantic right whales left One of the world’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-234581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}