Delaware beaches are a travel spot for many, including this unique animal species spotted last week in Dewey.
6ABC reported this week that meteorologist Edward Russo saw a North Atlantic right whale swimming in Dewey Beach in mid-September. Russo captured video footage of the whale less than 200 yards offshore.
While whales aren’t an entirely uncommon occurrence at Delaware beaches, the North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species, with only about 360 of them remaining. Of those 360, there are fewer than 70 “reproductively active females,” and the number of new calves born in recent years has been below average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.
The two other species of right whales are the North Pacific and Southern right whales. The species are baleen whales, which feed on tiny crustaceans (copepods) by straining large volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates, like a sieve.