Mass. — If any beachgoers find an orange piece of plastic washed up on the shore, NOAA wants you to double-check. It may not be a floatie or lifejacket, but a crucial piece of equipment used to study an endangered species of whale.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is looking for two lost whale tags that could’ve washed up anywhere on the Massachusetts coast.
NOAA uses the whale tags to track North Atlantic right whales, one of the world’s most endangered large whale species with less than 350 individuals remaining in the wild. Equipped with a camera and a variety of sensors, the tags provide researchers with invaluable data regarding the whales’ movements.
The devices are 6 inches long and look like toy bugs with suction cup feet and an antenna. The devices are not permanent and fall off the whales after a short period of time, leaving the researchers to collect them.
Now you can step in the feel those shoes.
Sanctuary researchers are asking for help in locating 2 missing research "tags" used to study large whales. The units are ~6 in, look like a toy bug, with suction cup feet and antennae on its "head." The tags could wash ashore anywhere along the MA Coast. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/nVrEOwETn9
— NOAA Stellwagen Bank NMS (@NOAASBNMS) May 10, 2023
If you find either tag, please contact NOAA researchers at stellwagen@noaa.gov.
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