The discovery of an endangered whale sighted off the coast of Boston gave researchers an incredibly unique “tail” to tell.

Observers from the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) Right Whale Ecology Program spotted a North Atlantic right whale off Boston’s coast Nov. 19 while conducting an aerial survey, according to a CCS press release . What made this already rare sighting extraordinary was that the whale apparently traveled 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to get there.

“The first sighting of the year is always exciting, but we didn’t yet realize just how remarkable this one would turn out to be,” CCS researcher Ryan Schosberg said in the release.

Noting unique scarring on the right side of the whale’s head, researchers in the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for

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