20,000 gray whales are known to live in the eastern Pacific Ocean today, with approx 200 in the western Pacific. Scientists recently spotted one in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Israel.

Gray whales haven't been seen in the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean since the 1700s and here we have a solitary gray whale swimming near Tel Aviv, halfway across the world from where the rest of its species resides - hopefully not lost.

One theory is that it came across an ice-free North-West Passage from the Pacific Ocean and kept swimming, gray whales are well known for their long migrations each year, migrating from their calving waters off Baja California up the coast to the Arctic. However this particular animal has beaten all records to end up where it has and with climate change who knows what other whale species we will be seeing in unusual areas.