Arctic passageways let species mingle

One whale spotted in the wrong ocean seemed merely odd. But a second misplaced whale looked more like a sign of an ecological shake-up: Pacific Ocean fauna moving into the Atlantic Ocean and vice versa. As the Arctic’s icy barriers melt, new waterways may soon allow many formerly separated animals to move and mix.

“We do believe we’re seeing a faunal exchange,” says Seabird McKeon of the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Fla.

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