Scrag Whale is a mystery cetacean of the North Atlantic Ocean. Similar to a Fin whale (Balaeonoptera physalus) but with knobs on its back instead of a dorsal fin.
Scientific name[]
Balaena gibbosa, given by Johann Polycarp Erxleben in 1777.
Significant sighting[]
According to legend, the first whale the white settlers of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, encountered was a Scrag whale that lingered in the harbor for three days in the 1670s. The settlers knew they had to try to capture it, but to accomplish this, a blacksmith had to fashion the island’s first harpoon.
Possible explanations[]
- At one time, it was thought to be a juvenile Northern right whale (Eubalaena glacialis).
- Now universally considered to have been a North Atlantic population of the Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), hunted to extinction by the eighteenth century. A subfossil jaw discovered in 1977 at Southampton, New York, was identified in 1984 as a gray whale radiocarbon-dated to approximately 1710. This species is currently found only in the Pacific.