\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAn endangered whale species was spotted off the coast of Brevard County, and marine scientists are warning boaters to keep an eye out.A North Atlantic right whale and her newborn calf were spotted near the shoreline Dec. 17. The whales can be difficult to see, despite being about the size of a school bus.\u201cWe want to protect them at this vulnerable time,\u201d Oceana marine scientist Nora Ives said. \u201cThey\u2019re really hard to see. They don\u2019t have a dorsal fin. Mom and calf hang out at the surface while the baby learns to breathe and they\u2019re nursing. So, if you\u2019re on the water, go slow and keep an eye out for those below.\u201dThere are only about 380 North Atlantic right whales left.\u201cThis sighting is really interesting and important for the public to know about because it was sighted south of the seasonal management area, which is a slow zone put in place while these whales are migrating,\u201d Ives said. \u201cThey\u2019re actually outside of the protected slow zone.\u201dIf you spot one of these whales, Oceana asks that you call 877-WHALE-HELP.\u201cBecause they\u2019re critically endangered, it is illegal to approach them within 500 yards,\u201d Ives said. \u201cThat being said, if you go to the beach this weekend, bring a pair of binoculars. You might be lucky enough to see them from shore.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tMERRITT ISLAND, Fla. \u2014<\/strong> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n An endangered whale species was spotted off the coast of Brevard County, and marine scientists are warning boaters to keep an eye out.<\/p>\n A North Atlantic right whale and her newborn calf were spotted near the shoreline Dec. 17. The whales can be difficult to see, despite being about the size of a school bus.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to protect them at this vulnerable time,\u201d Oceana marine scientist Nora Ives said. \u201cThey\u2019re really hard to see. They don\u2019t have a dorsal fin. Mom and calf hang out at the surface while the baby learns to breathe and they\u2019re nursing. So, if you\u2019re on the water, go slow and keep an eye out for those below.\u201d<\/p>\n There are only about 380 North Atlantic right whales left.<\/p>\n \u201cThis sighting is really interesting and important for the public to know about because it was sighted south of the seasonal management area, which is a slow zone put in place while these whales are migrating,\u201d Ives said. \u201cThey\u2019re actually outside of the protected slow zone.\u201d<\/p>\n If you spot one of these whales, Oceana asks that you call 877-WHALE-HELP.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause they\u2019re critically endangered, it is illegal to approach them within 500 yards,\u201d Ives said. \u201cThat being said, if you go to the beach this weekend, bring a pair of binoculars. You might be lucky enough to see them from shore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An endangered whale species was spotted off the coast of Brevard County, and marine scientists are warning boaters…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":466040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12981,15702,212062,21374,19183,212061,27770,68209,130692,21578,6566,212059,159,212060,67,132,68,9953,31918,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-466039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-brevard-county","9":"tag-coast","10":"tag-dorsal-fin","11":"tag-eye","12":"tag-ive","13":"tag-marine-scientist","14":"tag-mom","15":"tag-newborn-calf","16":"tag-north-atlantic-right-whale","17":"tag-pair","18":"tag-place","19":"tag-rare-right-whale","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-slow-zone","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-weekend","26":"tag-whale","27":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115767481676843877","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}