A Greenland, or bowhead, whale suddenly surfaced right near the old pier in Longyearbyen on Wednesday. The species generally is believed to be nearly extinct.

"This is nothing less than a sensation," said Ian Gjertz, an environmental official on Svalbard. "Neither I nor hardly any of the others here have ever seen a Greenland whale."

The whale measured about 15 meters long and splashed about in the waters not far from the center of town. Such whales can be 20 meters long and weigh 100 tons.

"It just swam around here for about an hour," an enthustiastic Gjertz told Aftenposten.no. "Talk about a coincidence that it surfaced right here! It was just incredible."

Gjertz said that researchers from both the Norwegian Polar Institute and the University of Oslo were searching for Greenland whales earlier this year in the area thought to be their main habitat, the ice floes between Greenland and Svalbard. They counted only 20.

"I’ve been roaming around here in planes, helicopters and boats for the past 25 years and kept an eye out for Greenland whales," Gjertz said. "But I never saw one. And then this one shows up here!"

The population of the now-rare whales once numbered as many as 25,000 around Svalbard, but commercial hunting since the 1600s took its toll.

The whale spotted on Wednesday swam around Longbyen for around 12 hours, and was also seen by passengers on a tourist vessel.