Endangered whale spotted in Gulf
Fishing boat captain Robert Holzinger was taking customers into the Gulf of Mexico when he saw it.
A whale spout about 3 miles off Florida’s Gordon Pass turned out to be a North Atlantic right whale, one of the world’s most endangered and a rare sight in the Gulf.
“It was the last thing we were expecting to see,” Holzinger, 23, said.
Holzinger, who has been fishing in Naples waters since he was a child, had never seen a whale until the Monday morning fishing trip. At first, he said, he thought it was a dolphin.
Scientists said it is the same juvenile right whale spotted near Panama City Beach this month.
Gretchen Lovewell, stranding investigations program manager at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, called the sighting “shocking.”
The last time a right whale was seen in the Gulf of Mexico was in 2006. Only five right whales have been reported in the Gulf since 1963.
Some 360 right whales are left in the wild, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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