By Jon Hurdle
Bordentown, New Jersey - Whale watchers gathered on the banks of the Delaware River on Thursday hoping to catch a rare glimpse of a beluga whale, thousands of kilometres from its Arctic home.
The whale has been patrolling a stretch of the river between New Jersey and Pennsylvania since it was first spotted near the New Jersey capital of Trenton.
Wildlife experts say the whale is probably feeding on shad and herring and appears to be in good health despite being in unfamiliar, fresh water.
People anxious to see the whale gathered at access points on both sides of the river about 110km from the Atlantic Ocean.
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A riverside parking lot at a scenic overlook near Bordentown was overflowing with vehicles as about 60 people waited for a sighting of the creature late on Thursday.
"We're determined to see the whale," said Erica Millemann of Bordentown, who was waiting with her husband Keith and their four-year-old son Bailey.
"This is not where he belongs so it's a really cool thing to see," said Keith Millemann.
Teri Frady, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which is helping to monitor the whale, said the whale is a male measuring about 3,7m and aged between 25 and 35 years.
Some belugas are known to be solitary and so while the sighting is rare it's not unusual for some of the whales to stray far from their normal Canadian ranges, Frady said.
This is the first record of a beluga on the Delaware, Frady said.
The last whale of any kind to be seen on the Delaware was the much larger right whale seen at Pennsauken, New Jersey, in 1995.
Frady said the authorities would try to avoid coaxing the whale back to the ocean, and hope that it makes its own way back when its food runs out or the water gets too warm.
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