August 29, 2012 (ORLEANS) _ A rare whale sighting is being hailed as the first time in recorded history that the animal has appeared so far south of the Arctic. 

The bowhead whale was spotted in the North Atlantic just east of orleans by researchers at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. 

It was seen during an aerial survey last March among a group of right whales. researchers say climate change may have brought the rare whale so far south. 

The bowhead rarely strays from the northern reaches of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.