Scientists stunned as grey whale sighted off Israel

[cory777]

Source: AFP

JERUSALEM (AFP) - – The appearance of a grey whale off the coast of Israel has stunned scientists, in what was thought to be the first time the giant mammal has been seen outside the Pacific in several hundred years.

The whale, which was first sighted off Herzliya in central Israel on Saturday, is believed to have travelled thousands of miles from the north Pacific after losing its way in search of food.

"It's an unbelievable event which has been described as one of the most important whale sightings ever," said Dr Aviad Scheinin, chairman of the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center which identified the creature.

A population of grey whales once inhabited the north Atlantic but became extinct in the 17th or 18th centuries and has not been seen there since.

Read more: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100512/tts-environment-israel-species-animal-wh-c1b2fc3.html

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maybe the Israel/Palestine forum would be more appropriate for this story?

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. He's making aliyah? n/t

[Xipe Totec]

2. Running away from the Gulf oil spill...

[Ian David]

3. Let My People Breach! n/t

[Duer 157099]

4. Jonah? Anyone know where Jonah is?

He'd better stay away from the coast.

[JDPriestly]

12. Jonah, that's us in the whale of the BP oil spill.

We have had so many disasters. Is the earth, God, whatever you call the great wisdom of nature, trying to tell us something?

[rockymountaindem]

5. Maybe it's on the hunt for creamed herring or gefilte fish n/t

[MidwestTransplant]

6. Lookin for some lox

[alfredo]

10. Those are to the south in the Suez Canal.

[MidwestTransplant]

22. ha

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Wow! From the link:

"What has amazed the entire marine mammal research community is there haven't been any grey whales in the Atlantic since the 18th century," he said. Scheinin said the creature, a mature whale measuring some 12 metres (39 feet) and weighing around 20 tonnes, probably reached the Atlantic through the Northwest Passage, an Arctic sea route that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is normally covered with ice.

Climate change in action.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Double wow to your wow!

Something is afoot, unless the whale is Jewish and is trying to emigrate.

[bvar22]

8. Quick...someone check their Old Testament

Surely this has got to be one of the signs of The Apocalypse! :scared:

[AnnieBW]

9. Well, that's not kosher!

Oy, vey!

[daleo]

11. It's looking for the whaling wall. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. You've won the contest!

Most groan-inducing pun in the thread!

[Prometheus Bound]

13. And a gray whale popped up in downtown Vancouver last week.

Downtown Vancouver gets a visit from a wandering whale
Published On Thu May 06 2010

VANCOUVER—As wrong turns go, this one was a doozy.

A 35-foot gray whale has made a rare sojourn into downtown Vancouver's waterfront after getting off-track in search of food.

video: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/805738--downtown-vancouver-gets-a-visit-from-a-wandering-whale

[lostnfound]

20. Nice that we melt the planet and our reporters make cutesy anthropomorphisms out of it

Hope it finds the others..

[FailureToCommunicate]

15. Calling Ishmael... Calling Ishmael...

If whales got thru the melted ice of the NorthWest Passage can polar bears be far behind?

THAT will turn heads in Haifa!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. Maybe it's an ambassador...

attempting to negotiate peace.

[quakerboy]

18. Or alternately, its pissed cause someone stole the land

its family lived on during Noah's flood, and its coming down to take its revenge...

[boppers]

17. Oh shit, they learned how to swim?

This should be interesting...

[harun]

21. Cool.

[BreweryYardRat]

23. Every few centuries, a big whale wanders into the Med. At least this one's peaceful.

The Byzantines in Justinian's time (500s) had to deal with a large, cranky sperm whale that lived in the Bosphorus for 50 years.

http://books.google.com/books?id=teuf9i-AJ2wC&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=procopius+porphyrion&source=bl&ots=8sfsy41Hee&sig=rhQjfbYomn8hu12LAU9P_0EUZAA&hl=en&ei=jEDrS4CPLIr88AbW_8y_BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

I think there have been other cases of this phenomenon, but I can't recall any off the top of my head.

[maxsolomon]

24. probably doomed.

lonely for sure.