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.
CCS researchers Ryan Schosberg and Annie Bartlett spotted the whale while conducting an aerial survey off the US coast.
“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.
“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.
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.”
