Atlantic records and vagrants reviewed; speakers caution against conflating rare sightings with ENP trends

Randy Reeves reviewed evidence that grey whales were present historically in the North Atlantic and that the population was absent by about 1800, with whaling and environmental change as plausible contributors. "We can say with some certainty that by 1800 grey whales were no longer present in the Atlantic Ocean," Reeves said, and he summarized a small number of modern North Atlantic and Mediterranean sightings in poor body condition.

Reeves and others cautioned that rare vagrant sightings (for example, the winter 2023 occurrence off Miami and later Nantucket, and two Mediterranean sightings in 2010 and 2023) are interesting but too infrequent to drive ENP population dynamics. They urged careful interpretation of vagrant records and recommended further study of historical records and subfossil evidence where available.