ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Marine researchers say a rare whale tracked across the Pacific this year to North American waters has been there before.
Photo analysis confirmed the highly endangered western Pacific gray whale — one of only 130 remaining — was photographed in April 2008 off Vancouver Island.
U.S and Russian researchers on Oct. 4 attached a satellite tag to the then-13-year-old, male western Pacific gray whale off Sakhalin Island as part of research into where the whales spend winters.
The whale left Kamchatka Peninsula on Jan. 3.
(AP)