CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — There are less than 100 of them left in the world, so what were two Rice's whales doing hanging out, off the coast of corpus Christi?
"So the Rice's whale were spotted April 11 by NOAA, 55 nautical miles which is about 60 something miles off of Corpus Christi," Harte Research Institute Endowed Chair for Marine Policy and Law Kristina Alexander said.
Alexander said the Rice's whales are an endangered species and according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration there are fewer than 100 of them in the Gulf of Mexico.
"They like water between 100 and 400 meters deep," she said.
A spokesperson for NOAA said these two whales were found in an area that was 224 meters deep as they were conducting an aerial survey.
According to Alexander, its not really a question on what brought the whales to our area, but instead, how long they've been here and why they're just now being detected.
"So its pretty exciting to find two so far from where we thought they were because that might mean there are more of them than we thought," she said.
Another giant tourist that always seems to wow people is the manatee.
"We do get manatee sightings but its really rare, probably one or two a year," HRI Director of Community Engagement Jace Tunnell said.
Tunnell said the most recent spotting was on North Padre which is a pretty long ways from Tampa, Florida where the mammals typically reside.
"You usually see them around canals, people will have their hoses and stuff that will hang out-- they need fresh water to survive, but we tell people don't do that it's actually illegal," he said.
If you do spot a manatee or maybe even a Rice's whale you are asked to call it in to the Stranded Mammal Network at 1-800-9-MAMMAL.
